The Judgment Fund: Democrat’s Secret Slush Fund for Ideological Payoffs

The Democratic Party, in its infinite wisdom—or perhaps simply its knack for unaccountable government spending—has managed to turn the Justice Department into a highly effective money laundering operation for its favorite interest groups. This is not some new caper, by the way; it's a practice perfected under the Obama-Biden regime, and it has reached grotesque proportions since Biden's triumphant (or rather, cognitively uncertain) return to the Oval Office. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under the capable stewardship of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, needs to tackle this glaring example of unchecked executive abuse. To put it plainly, these "settlements" aren't for justice—they're political payoffs.

Now, let’s be clear about what the Judgment Fund is supposed to do. It was originally created back in 1956 to efficiently pay out legal judgments against the federal government. There was a time when Congress actually acted like Congress and exercised some control over these funds. There was a cap of $100,000 on settlements that required congressional oversight for anything higher—an excellent system of checks and balances, in the spirit of the founders' intent. But in 1977, Congress decided to hand the Justice Department a blank check, removing the cap entirely and allowing this fund to pay out whatever it pleased, without needing any kind of Congressional approval. And what happens when you give a government agency unchecked authority over taxpayer money? The fund turned into a slush fund, plain and simple.

You see, the Obama administration figured out how to exploit this. Tony West, the brother-in-law of Vice President Kamala Harris, spearheaded a new way to distribute funds from this unmonitored money pot. Emails revealed how his department was actively seeking out ways to funnel cash to favored nonprofits and NGOs, a wish list for loyal Democratic allies. Instead of going to legitimate claimants, settlements started being diverted to politically aligned lawyers and organizations, with many of these cases settled just as the government was about to win them outright. Convenient, isn’t it? The payoffs were enormous—sometimes reaching billions of dollars—with those politically-aligned lawyers raking in hundreds of millions in fees.

This sordid tradition of using the Justice Department for political ends continued unabated into Biden's term, extending beyond financial settlements to significantly impact policy. For example, Biden used the slush fund to pay off the ACLU and their lawyers, who sued on behalf of illegal border crossers detained with minors. The resulting settlement not only prevented Biden from arresting and detaining any illegal alien caught smuggling a minor across the border but also prohibited all future presidents from doing so for the next eight years. If left unchallenged, this settlement would prevent President Trump or any future administration from arresting illegal border crossers as long as they bring children.

Border Czar Tom Homan must urgently coordinate a legal challenge against Biden's settlement with the ACLU. This agreement is an unconstitutional overreach that infringes upon the separation of powers and violates Article II. It sets a dangerous precedent, allowing judicial settlements to lock in policy decisions that constrain not only the current administration but also future ones.

Contrast this with President Trump’s approach, where his Attorney General banned settlement slush funds outright, effectively stopping the misuse of the Judgment Fund for political purposes. This was one of the early, underreported successes of the Trump administration, closing off a major channel of political financing for the left. Predictably, Biden reversed this ban immediately upon taking office, turning the fund back into an unrestricted resource for the Democratic Party’s preferred projects and allies.

Take, for instance, the 2016 settlement with Volkswagen. The DOJ imposed a requirement that Volkswagen fund a $2 billion White House electric vehicle initiative—an initiative that Congress had explicitly rejected. The DOJ basically said, "We don’t care what Congress thinks; we’re doing it anyway." And then there was the billion-dollar payout pursued by the Biden DOJ in 2021 for illegal immigrants claiming emotional distress—a payout that was scrapped only after it sparked public outrage. Even then, the ACLU’s lawyers still managed to cash in on attorneys’ fees. Or look at the recent $2 million handed over to FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page for releasing anti-Trump texts on government-issued phones. What exactly is the reasoning here, aside from Biden’s desire to take care of two of his loyal anti-Trump warriors?

At its core, this misuse of the Judgment Fund is a matter of transparency—or the complete lack thereof. The Judgment Fund’s finances are treated with more secrecy than the CIA’s black budget. There are no meaningful public records of where these payments are going or why they’re being made. By statute, attorneys’ fees don't even have to be disclosed. This is particularly helpful for Democrat-aligned lawyers—the same ones who make sure to donate generously to the Democratic Party. It’s all just one big, taxpayer-funded piggy bank that gets doled out to the right people under the guise of restitution.

Experts now estimate that the Judgment Fund will pay out over $10 billion this year alone to Democratic-aligned groups and their loyal lawyers. And this isn’t just speculation—the Government Accountability Office has consistently pointed out the opacity of the system. Billions of dollars vanish every year, and there’s not even a hint of oversight. No one knows how many claims the federal government processes, who benefits, or even the specific facts behind these settlements.

The Department of Government Efficiency needs to step in and bring this rogue fund back under control. The solution is twofold: first, restore congressional oversight over all settlements. Congress needs to reassert its authority over federal spending as laid out in the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause. You know, the thing that’s supposed to keep the executive branch from using taxpayer money however it sees fit. And second, there must be full disclosure of all payments from the Judgment Fund—including retroactive disclosure of past settlements. We need to know the parties involved, the payments made, the lawyers hired, and the fees they pocketed. The American taxpayer deserves a full accounting of where their money is going.

There was a time in this country when honesty and accountability in government were taken for granted—well, more so than now, anyway. Today, the Justice Department is being used as a financial reservoir for the Democratic Party, and the Judgment Fund has been transformed into an opaque system for enriching insiders and bypassing Congress. If we want any hope of restoring government accountability, we need the DOGE to push for meaningful reforms. We need to end this practice of treating taxpayer money as a private piggy bank for ideological purposes. The American people deserve transparency and the assurance that every dollar they pay in taxes is being put to a just and constitutional use. The kind of honest government that Washington envisioned—and not the cynical political machine that Biden, Harris, and their ilk are running today.

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