The Treasury Department’s top lawyer resigned Monday, just hours after the government announced a controversial $1.8 billion settlement with President Trump. His departure was sudden. The timing was not accidental.
Brian Morrissey, the department’s general counsel, stepped down seven months after his Senate confirmation, according to people familiar with his departure. He joined the Trump administration last year as the president’s pick for the role, after previously serving at the agency and at the Justice Department during Trump’s first term.
A Treasury spokesman said, “Mr. Morrissey has served the United States Treasury with both honor and integrity. We wish him all the best in his next endeavors”. In his resignation letter, Morrissey thanked Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for the chance to serve.
But the polite words mask a stunning backdrop. Morrissey quit on the same day the Justice Department announced it was creating a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as part of a deal to settle Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
The Fund: What It Is and Who Gets the Money
The fund is designed to compensate people who claim they were wrongly targeted by the Biden administration’s Justice Department. That pool could include the roughly 1,600 people charged over the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The fund will be controlled by a five-member commission hand-picked by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer. Blanche will appoint every member and retain the power to remove any of them without cause.
The Treasury Department is responsible for depositing the $1.776 billion into an account controlled by that commission. The money will come from the Judgment Fund, an uncapped pot of funding that is available for the federal government to pay settlement claims without needing congressional approval.
Trump dropped his original lawsuit on Monday after a judge cast doubt on the basic legality of a sitting president filing suit against a department he himself runs. The lawsuit stemmed from a tax information leak involving former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty to providing Trump’s tax information to the media. Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison.
The Settlement’s Controversial Terms
Under the settlement’s terms, Trump and his family are excluded from receiving any money from the compensation fund, officials said. However, Democrats and watchdog groups have been scathing in their criticism.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon branded the deal the “most brazen theft and abuse of taxpayer dollars by any president in American history”. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin called it “pure fraud and highway robbery”. Nearly 100 House Democrats filed an amicus brief seeking to block the settlement.
“This case is nothing but a racket designed to take $1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand out to his private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists,” Raskin said in a statement.
Adding to the controversy, recipients of the payouts and the sums they pocket will be kept hidden from the public. A report on who received payments will be sent to the attorney general every quarter, but it is not specifically stated whether officials will publicly report how the money is disbursed.
The Legal Fight Continues
Morrissey himself has not spoken publicly about his exit. But critics are already challenging the deal in court. Rep. John B. Larson (CT-01) joined with his fellow Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee and Judiciary Committee, filing a brief urging the judge to dismiss the case and fully scrutinize the settlement agreement.
“Never in our nation’s history has a sitting President sought a settlement with the government he leads, until now,” Larson said in a statement. “Money deducted from your paycheck to fund our government should never go to Donald Trump’s bank account or payoffs to his MAGA allies”.
The Bottom Line
Treasury Department general counsel Brian Morrissey resigned Monday, hours after the Trump administration announced a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to settle the president’s $10 billion IRS lawsuit. The fund could compensate individuals charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol attack and other Trump allies who claim they were politically targeted. Trump dropped his lawsuit after a judge questioned whether a sitting president could sue an agency he controls.
The fund will be controlled by a commission hand-picked by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Democrats have called the deal “brazen theft” and “highway robbery,” and nearly 100 House Democrats have filed a brief seeking to block the settlement. Recipients of the payouts will be kept hidden from the public.
