House Democrats are circumventing Speaker Mike Johnson to force a confrontation over the Trump administration's anti-weaponization fund, which the Justice Department claimed to scrap this month but which critics say remains a threat to the rule of law.
The vehicle is a discharge petition filed by House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland. His bill, the NO CARTE BLANCHE Act, would permanently prohibit use of taxpayer dollars to compensate anyone covered under Trump's settlement with the IRS and would void a sweeping legal immunity deal for Trump, his family, and their businesses reportedly brokered by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Raskin announced the petition plan Thursday morning during the House Democrats' whip meeting, with the petition going live Friday. "Although Todd Blanche initially said the $1.8 billion slush fund would not move forward, his own Justice Department emphatically refuses to commit that promise to writing," Raskin said in a statement. "The NO CARTE BLANCHE Act blocks this and any future taxpayer-funded slush fund, voids this unprecedented attempt to grant immunity, and permanently blocks any future abuse of the Judgment Fund."
The move tests Republican resolve on an issue where the party has publicly complained but where private support may be thinner. While GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in criticizing the anti-weaponization fund, signing a discharge petition represents a different threshold. Trump has shown little patience for Republican defections, orchestrating the ouster of Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky after he led the discharge petition that forced a vote on releasing the Epstein files.
Discharge petitions have become an increasingly potent tool in Democratic hands this congressional session. Eight separate petitions have already gathered the 218 signatures needed to force a House vote, transforming what was once a rarely used parliamentary maneuver into a regular feature of the legislative landscape. The tactic allows Democrats to drag Trump-related fights onto the House floor regardless of Johnson's priorities.
The Democrats' skepticism about the fund's actual demise carries weight. A federal judge has expressed doubt that the Justice Department truly shut down the anti-weaponization initiative despite Blanche's public statements. The fund itself represented nearly $1.8 billion in potential compensation that critics viewed as a slush fund designed to shield Trump and his circle from legal accountability.
The immediate challenge for Republicans will be whether to sign the petition and risk Trump's wrath or decline and appear to condone what many on their own side have called improper. The calculus differs for Trump loyalists in safe districts versus those facing competitive general elections, but the Trump retaliation factor looms large across the conference.
Author James Rodriguez: "Democrats found a workaround to Johnson's control of the floor, and now they're betting that Republican principles on the rule of law will crack under Trump pressure."
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