Cornell professor Joseph Margulies examines the Trump administration’s proposed $1.776 billion “victims of lawfare” compensation fund, its likely beneficiaries, and the legal and political opposition it has generated. Professor Margulies argues that while the fund is a corrupt sham designed to enrich Trump allies—including January 6th rioters who were justly prosecuted—the underlying concept of compensating people genuinely wronged by federal power is sound, and the true victims deserving redress are those like unlawfully detained immigrants and targets of vindictive prosecutions.
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