{"id":2608168,"date":"2026-05-29T08:21:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-used-the-doj-to-destroy-their-enemies-restitution-for-victims-is-the-least-we-should-do\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T08:21:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:21:59","slug":"democrats-used-the-doj-to-destroy-their-enemies-restitution-for-victims-is-the-least-we-should-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-used-the-doj-to-destroy-their-enemies-restitution-for-victims-is-the-least-we-should-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Restitution For Victims Of DOJ Lawfare Is The Least We Should Do"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-used-the-doj-to-destroy-their-enemies-restitution-for-victims-is-the-least-we-should-do%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2608168&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>I know what it costs to be on the receiving end of a partisan federal prosecution. I know what it costs in dollars: millions. And I know what it costs in the harder currencies \u2014 reputation, career, family life, trauma. President Trump\u2019s proposal for a $1.776 billion legal fund to reimburse Americans who were targeted by a politicized Justice Department isn\u2019t a partisan gesture. It\u2019s a recognition of something I and thousands of others have lived through. It\u2019s also a measure of reform for government agencies infested with corruption and weaponized ideology.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>President Trump understands this better than anyone. The FBI raided his home. He faced down <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Donald_Trump_indictments,_2023-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">88 baseless criminal charges<\/a>. His tax records were leaked to the press. And he watched the weaponization of the DOJ against American citizens.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump is owed restitution for the unlawful leak of his tax records. But instead of taking a settlement for himself, he wants those funds to be used to make whole other victims of injustice.<\/p>\n<p>For victims of political prosecution, the process is the punishment, and the DOJ knows this. No one can stand up to the near-limitless resources of the U.S. government. Imagine the immense harm done to a small business owner, a parent framed as a domestic terrorist, or a jailed pro-life grandmother. This legal fund will begin to give them some justice and enable Americans to fight DOJ weaponization.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wowt.com\/2025\/01\/29\/us-doj-set-dismiss-case-against-former-nebraska-congressman-jeff-fortenberry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called<\/a> my case a baseless \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d The government <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/06\/29\/fbi-lies-and-entrapment-result-in-probation-sentence-for-former-republican-congressman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">manufactured<\/a> a case against me and let the real criminals walk free. The prosecutor in my case donated to a group called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/minutes\/congress\/01-24-2022\/fortenberry-teams-new-move\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stop Republicans<\/a>\u201d and buried that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/receipts\/individual-contributions\/?contributor_name=Jenkins%2C+Mack&#038;contributor_employer=DOJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">donation<\/a> from scrutiny within the ActBlue front site. He was aided by FBI and IRS agents who targeted me and lied to me. They wanted a trophy, so they picked a conservative Republican congressman from Nebraska who supported President Trump. This is not law enforcement. It\u2019s weaponization. This is the kind of wrong that the legal fund is designed to right.<\/p>\n<p>A $1.776 billion legal fund \u2014 the number echoing the year Americans threw off a regime that used its courts to prosecute pretended offenses \u2014 does several things at once. It acknowledges and repairs harm done to Americans. It puts consequence-free prosecutorial abuse on notice. And it provides resources for people who have no real way to fight back against the most powerful litigation operation on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>This fund is not unprecedented, although it\u2019s probably the first time a government official has put a settlement due to his family at the service of the American people. President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-announces-anti-weaponization-fund\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Obama<\/a> established a settlement fund. And President Biden\u2019s DOJ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/07\/26\/politics\/peter-strzok-lisa-page-fbi-settlement-doj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">compensated<\/a> supporters for what they termed injustices committed against them.<\/p>\n<p>Establishment critics are smearing this as a payoff to political allies of the president. But remember, the United States Senate recently <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/05\/22\/senators-fight-harder-against-restitution-for-doj-weaponization-than-against-weaponization-itself\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">voted<\/a> itself access to $500,000 for members secretly surveilled by the government. American citizens deserve at least the same consideration as the senators who represent them. More consideration, in fact.<\/p>\n<p>The fund could reimburse Americans whose prosecutions were brought in bad faith, dropped, reversed, or pursued in ways that violated the equal application of the law. If a Democrat official was railroaded by a Republican prosecutor on flimsy grounds, the fund should make that person whole, too. I am pleased that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said as much <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kelM6mOGpIw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">during his recent testimony<\/a> before Congress.<\/p>\n<p>I lost years I can\u2019t get back. I can\u2019t un-resign from Congress. I can\u2019t un-spend the legal fees. I can\u2019t make the trauma inflicted on my family a fiction. The same goes for anyone similarly targeted. No fund repairs that.<\/p>\n<p>But a fund of this scale, backed by President Trump, says something the American system has needed to say for a long time: Neither the people who run the machinery of federal prosecution nor federal judges are above the citizens they prosecute; and when they cross the line, the country owes a debt to the people they injure.<\/p>\n<p>I hope every American who has watched a neighbor, a colleague, or a stranger ground up by a wrongful prosecution understands what is actually being offered here \u2014 not a partisan favor, but the first serious attempt in a generation to put a price tag on what the weaponization of justice has cost real people.<\/p>\n<p>The bill came due a long time ago. It is time to pay it.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>   Jeff Fortenberry was elected to the United States House of Representatives for nine terms. He served Nebraska\u2019s 1st Congressional District and rose to a senior level on the House Appropriations Committee, with a distinguished record in foreign policy, food policy, and health care policy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know what it costs to be on the receiving end of a partisan federal prosecution. I know what it costs in dollars: millions. And I know what it costs in the harder currencies \u2014 reputation, career, family life, trauma. President Trump\u2019s proposal for a $1.776 billion legal fund to reimburse Americans who were targeted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4300,"featured_media":2608169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-05-28T154134.857.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2608168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-05-28T154134.857.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2608168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2608169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2608168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2608168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2608168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}