Trump refuses to rule out using ‘anti-weaponization’ fund for Capitol rioters who attacked police

Donald Trump declined on Sunday to definitively rule out compensating individuals who were charged with assaulting police officers when his supporters attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 toward the end of his first presidency. Trump did that in an interview on NBC News’s Meet the Press, where he spoke in support of what his administration calls an “anti-weaponization” fund , arguing that people who entered the Capitol while Congress was preparing to certify Joe Biden’s victory over him in the 2020 presidential election had been treated unfairly by prosecutors and should receive compensation. When host Kristen Welker asked whether people who assaulted police officers during the attack should receive taxpayer-funded compensation, Trump responded: “I wouldn’t be inclined to say so, but I have to see it. “Well, look – if it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed.” Trump’s comments on the nearly $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund come as questions remain about whether it will move forward. On 29 May, a federal judge issued a temporary order preventing the administration from establishing the fund while a lawsuit seeking to stop it is considered. On 2 June, acting attorney general Todd Blanche told lawmakers that the administration was “not moving forward with the fund, period”. …