David GilmourMay 21st, 2026, 9:56 am

Newsmax legal analyst Andrew Napolitano warned that President Donald Trump’s new $1.8 billion fund presented “two major constitutional issues” in the form of the organization of the initiative itself and the lawsuit that facilitated it.

The Justice Department formally announced the creation of the fund on Monday, which will be used to pay settlements without congressional approval to people who argue they were subjected to politically motivated investigations or prosecutions.

The new initiative is linked to a legal settlement in Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the leak of his tax information during his first term in office.

The IRS sits within the Treasury Department’s jurisdiction, and under the arrangement, the Treasury Department will deposit roughly $1.776 billion into an account overseen by a group selected by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

On Newsmax’s Wake Up America on Wednesday, host Marc Lotter admitted that he had “issues” with the lawsuit that gave rise to the fund.

“I’m just not sure how you can be the defendant and [prosecutor] on both sides of this lawsuit,” he said. “It’s Trump against Trump.”

Napolitano, a retired jurist, then warned of problems with the suit and the fund:

There’s two major constitutional issues here. The first, you raised. This is not a real lawsuit. There’s no case or controversy. The president can, no person can be on both sides. In my view, Todd Blanche has very serious ethical issues because he signed this agreement knowing he works for the plaintiff. That’s issue number one.

Issue number two is to one Senator [John] Fetterman (D-PA) raised, where’s the money coming from? Congress didn’t authorize this. That Obama fund that the government cites as a precedent was expressly authorized by the Congress. The Constitution says, no money shall be spent from the public treasury, but that which has been appropriated by Congress.

Watch above via Newsmax.

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