Vows 100 percent tax

Newsom vows 100 percent tax on DOJ ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ payouts

His pledge mirrors Democratic efforts in New York and New Jersey.

By Tyler Katzenberger and Nick Reisman

Gavin Newsom vowed Wednesday to tax any payouts that California residents receive from a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that Donald Trump secured in a settlement with his own Justice Department, as Democratic lawmakers in states across the country ramp up efforts to counter the president on the measure.

“Anyone from California that receives any of those funds, we want to tax 100 percent of those proceeds,” the California governor told reporters during a press conference in his office, calling the settlement a “slush fund.”

Newsom’s pledge mirrors legislation unveiled earlier this week in New York by Democrat Alex Bores, a state assemblymember and House candidate, that would assess a 100 percent tax against payouts from the fund. Trump announced the fund last week as part of his $10 billion settlement with the DOJ in his lawsuit against the IRS, and Democratic efforts to undercut any payouts are picking up across the country.

Democratic state lawmakers in New York are pushing for a vote by next week to fully tax payouts from the fund. Queens state Sen. Mike Gianaris in an interview said his measure was in the process of being introduced in the Democratic-dominated Legislature.

“There’s widespread, bipartisan agreement that this is baldfaced corruption at its worst and if we have the ability in New York to combat it by ensuring that none of this money benefits anyone in our state’s borders, I’d expect there’d be widespread support for that idea,” he said.

Bores in a text message Wednesday night said he was working on getting his bill put up for a vote next week as well. Time is running short in Albany, where lawmakers are scheduled to end their legislative session late next week and will have a heavy docket of bills to approve.

In New Jersey, a Democratic state lawmaker said he was already working to draft a bill to set up a 100 percent tax on recipients of the funds.

“I think it’s brilliant — because the slush fund is completely corrupt and utterly appalling,” state Sen. Andrew Zwicker, a member of his chamber’s Budget committee, told POLITICO in an interview. “I think it’s a brilliant counter move to Trump’s corruption.”

Democrats and even some Republicans have blasted the fund. Trump didn’t consult lawmakers before announcing it and refused to rule out payouts to people who were convicted of crimes in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol. Congressional Democrats have proposed their own legislation aimed at countering the fund.

Trump last week defended the fund as restitution for people “badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration.”

Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate who has frequently sparred with Trump, also on Wednesday signed a measure aimed at restricting federal officers from intimidating voters and countering federal attempts to seize California’s voting rolls — legislation he said was aimed squarely at countering the president and his allies.

“He pardoned all of those folks that were beating up cops and absolved them, providing them 1.776 billion dollars. So not only do you get a pardon, you get rewarded,” Newsom said. “That’s why this is needed.”

In recent months, Trump has directed his Department of Justice to seize 2020 election ballots from certain states in pursuit of his baseless claims of election fraud. He’s declined to rule out sending in the National Guard or Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling places in the November elections.