Rachel Abrams

From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily.

In a move that shocked lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

The Justice Department announced an almost $2 billion fund of taxpayer money to compensate people that the administration claims have been victims of, quote, weaponization and lawfare.

Today, my colleague Andy Duren on the story of how this came about, who might get the money, and the bipartisan outrage that has ensued.

It's Wednesday, May 20th.

So we have talked a lot on The Daily about President Trump's campaign of retribution against his enemies in his second term, how he's wielded the federal government to do that.

And this week, it feels like we entered into a new chapter of that story with the creation of this enormous fund.

We're going to talk about how the fund works and who's likely to benefit.

But before we get into that, you, Andy, have been covering all of this.

And I just want to start with you explaining where did this fund even come from?

Right.

And to be clear, those stories relied on leaked tax returns.

I remember this.

Put another way, it became clear that the IRS had a leaker.

Obviously, leaking somebody's tax information is a crime.

And as you said, people can sue the IRS when their personal tax information is compromised, is leaked.

That is what he did.

The difference here, though, is that he's not just a private citizen.

He is suing a government that he oversees.

publicly called on the Justice Department to prosecute those that he considers his political enemies.