What To Know
- Scott Jennings expressed discomfort with Trump’s proposed $1.7 billion DOJ “anti-weaponization fund.”
- Jennings supports recourse for those unfairly targeted but worries Trump could be accused of picking people who are political allies.
- The conservative commentator also opposes payments to those convicted of political violence, specifically referencing participants in the January 6 Capitol riots.
CNN’s conservative commentator Scott Jennings has admitted he has reservations about President Donald Trump‘s new $1.7 billion Department of Justice fund.
On Monday (May 18), the Trump administration announced its “anti-weaponization fund,” which will “have the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants” who were “unfairly” prosecuted or investigated by the Biden administration. Critics have slammed the fund as a way for Trump to pay his allies.
Jennings, one of the president’s most staunch supporters, had his own concerns about the fund. On Monday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Jennings said this all started because Trump had his tax returns “unfairly and illegally leaked by the IRS.”
“That’s where all this started, and he was initially seeking damages for that, which he has given up,” Jennings said, per Mediaite. “He’ll receive no money, as I understand it, and now it has morphed into this idea that there have been people that have been unfairly targeted.”
The political commentator agreed that people have been “unfairly targeted” by the DOJ throughout history, adding, “And there ought to be, just at a top line, a way for people to seek recourse if they have been unfairly targeted.”
However, he admitted, “All of this makes me a little uncomfortable because it’s a lot of money, and it didn’t go through the U.S. Congress. That’s number one… Number two, I don’t want to see a president necessarily handpicking people to get payments, where he could be accused of just picking people out who are political allies.”
When asked if those prosecuted for taking part in the January 6 Capitol Riots should be allowed to seek recourse, Jennings responded, “My personal view is anybody who committed documented violence against the government or against police officers, you know, they’ve not been unfairly treated.”
“If they ended up being convicted of a crime because of the violence they committed, I got no real sympathy for them,” he continued. “Now, if there were people who were on the periphery that were swept up, over-prosecuted, whatever, and they have a way to seek recourse here, I have less of a problem with that. But I draw the line at violence.”
Again, he reiterated, “If you’ve committed political violence, if you attack the government building, if you attack police officers… I got no sympathy.”
While Jennings is now a strong Trump ally, he previously blamed the Capitol attacks on the president in anop-ed he wrote for CNNon January 6, 2021.
“President Donald Trump caused this insurrection with his lies and conspiracy theories about the election process being rigged against him,” he wrote at the time. “It was not stolen, but this madness was fomented by the president and his top advisers over the past several months.”