The slush fund is dead. Long live the slush fund.

[Igel]

3. The Judgment Fund's going to continue to exist.

This would just have been taken out of it.

Michael Flynn got $1.2 million from the Judgment Fund to settle his 2023 lawsuit. Lots of groups have. When there's a settlement to build something, reimburse something, right some wrong by tossing $ at it, that's where it comes from. That's what Congress authorized the Judgment Fund for when it was set up a few decades ago and that's what they fund it for.

The neat trick is when there's a group bringing suit against the government when the government considers that group an ally or some high official was closely affiliated with the group (or is leaving to be closely affiliated with it). It doesn't have to be so blatant as plaintiff Trump vs defendant Trump. Then again, a similar example would be the head of a public workers' union becoming mayor and then leading negotiations with the group he (or she) was affiliated with and supported for years. Corrupt to the core, but just try writing laws against that kind of corruption.