Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) announced Thursday that he wants to explore ways for Connecticut to seize any payouts Connecticut residents receive from President Donald Trump’s $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund.
Duff said he plans to introduce legislation in the 2027 legislative session — after a legal review — that would impose a 100% state tax on any such payments, effectively confiscating every dollar.
The fund, created by the Department of Justice earlier this month as part of a settlement resolving Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS for illegally leaking his tax returns, aims to provide compensation and formal apologies to Americans who claim they were targeted by government weaponization and lawfare.
Claims are voluntary, with no explicit partisan restrictions. The $1.776 billion comes from the federal Judgment Fund.
While Democrats have blasted the fund as a “corrupt slush fund,” supporters view it as a long-overdue effort to hold the federal government accountable for years of political persecution.
It’s sparked lawsuits, GOP internal debate, and reactions like Connecticut’s proposed 100% state tax on any local payouts.
“The Trump regime just handed $1.8 billion in taxpayer money to the same people who beat police officers and stormed the United States Capitol,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk). “Connecticut is not going to let a single one of our residents profit from that corruption. If you filed a claim with Trump’s slush fund and collected a check, we are going to explore every legal option available to take every penny of it back. We will not allow this state to be a safe harbor for insurrectionist windfalls.”
“We are living in unprecedented times,” he continued. “This regime acts in ways that were previously unthinkable, and their lapdogs on the Supreme Court and in Congress hand them a stamp of approval every single time. Connecticut is going to fight back with every tool we have. We are doing the legal work now so that when the 2027 session begins, we are ready to act.”
Duff’s hysterical meltdown is nothing more than rank partisan hackery and deliberate misinformation.
Far from a “slush fund for insurrectionists,” Trump’s $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund is open to any American who can demonstrate they were targeted by the federal government’s weaponized bureaucracy — including parents labeled “domestic terrorists” for speaking at school board meetings, pro-life activists raided by the FBI, and conservative organizations harassed by the IRS.
Instead of addressing Connecticut’s real problems, Duff is wasting time and political capital on a spiteful symbolic tax that will likely never survive legal scrutiny. His blind hatred for President Trump has once again exposed him as a petty, small-minded obstructionist more interested in grandstanding against Trump than serving the people of Connecticut.
Hellbound and Down 