Vice President JD Vance filled in for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday and was asked by ABC News’s chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl about exactly who will receive money from Trump’s highly controversial $1.8 billion payout fund.

On Monday, President Donald Trump settled his lawsuit against his own IRS under the condition that the $1.8 billion in taxpayer money would go to a fund to pay out to anyone who claims they were victimized by government weaponization.

“I want to ask you about that $1.8 billion fund, set up a weaponization fund, as it’s being called. Why should taxpayers be paying to settle a $10 billion lawsuit that was brought by the President of the United States? And should people who attacked the Capitol building and assaulted police officers—should they be eligible? Should they receive money? Should they receive money from this fund?” Karl asked the vice president.

“Let me say a couple things about that. First, Jon, I think in some ways the media has misrepresented what this is actually about. This is about compensating Americans for the lawfare that we saw under the last administration. And by the way, anybody can apply for it,” Vance replied, adding:

Republicans can apply for it. Democrats can apply for it, as you know, the President of the United States has pardoned a number of Democrats who he felt were actually subject to this lawfare. I mean, if Hunter Biden wants to apply for this particular fund, he is welcome to.

It’s going to go through a normal process where we vet everything, where we try to identify whether people’s claims are actually legitimate. But here’s the question: You say, “Why should taxpayers fund this?” Whenever the United States government incurs legal expenses, it pays out those legal expenses. When it’s settling a lawsuit, it pays money to settle that lawsuit.

And the question is, is a dollar of this money going to the Trump administration? No. Is a dollar of this money going to Donald Trump personally? No. Is a dollar of this going to Donald Trump’s family? No. The people that would get the money are people, some of whom have been prosecuted completely disproportionate to any crime they’ve ever committed. Like, let’s just take a couple of examples.

Tina Peters is this woman who is about to get out of prison thanks in large part to the President’s good work in Colorado. This is a woman who, at worst, if you believe everything that the prosecutors said about her, committed misdemeanor trespassing, and somebody threw the book at her. This innocent grandmother was going to spend 10 years in prison, completely disproportionate to any misdemeanor trespassing that I’ve ever seen. Was that fair? No. Is it reasonable for her to get some compensation for the fact that she was treated unfairly?

I think the answer is yes, and I think that what we’re going to see, hopefully, is the entire country, led by this Department of Justice, turning the page on the lawfare. What I would like to propose, and I think the Democrats—you know, hopefully they’re willing to meet us halfway here; I won’t hold my breath—but what I would propose is something very simple: that if you are willing to turn the page on Joe Biden’s lawfare, why don’t we prosecute people? Very simple principle: why don’t we prosecute people who violate the law?

Notably, Tina Peters was charged and prosecuted by a Republican DA in rural Colorado and kicked at cops when they tried to question her.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!