Published June 8, 2026
Regarding your editorial “Republicans Can Kill the Retribution Fund” (June 3), congressional Republicans have railed against judgment-fund settlement abuse for over a decade. One of their main, and correct, arguments has been that the executive branch can’t appropriate funds to favored classes of people via collusive settlement because it strips Congress of the power of the purse. It’s an argument we made constantly to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and his lieutenants when I was in charge of nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans. After questionable judgment-fund appropriations or attempted appropriations by Presidents Obama and Biden, Republicans would be wise to pass legislation making clear this is off limits for the executive. If they simply kill President Trump’s attempt, they implicitly establish that the practice is fine unless Congress says otherwise. This would have the effect of giving the legal greenlight to Democratic slush funds going forward. The solution is to use bipartisan outrage to ban all collusive monetary settlements by the Justice Department—whether Donald Trump is in the White House or not.
Michael A. Fragoso is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in the Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture Program, where he writes and speaks on issues relating to the law, the federal judiciary, and Congress. An attorney in private practice, he served in all three branches of the federal government, including most recently as chief counsel to the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY). His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy: Per Curiam, and elsewhere.
