Trump's allies are exploring a new legal avenue to compensate victims of the "militarization" of the state.

While the US Department of Justice has abandoned a proposed $1,8 billion fund intended to compensate supporters of Donald Trumpincluding people involved in the January 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol, his allies are now seeking another legal solution to obtain financial compensation.

According to several advisors close to Donald Trump and legal experts cited by Reuters, the preferred option would be to rely on the 1946 Federal Tort Claims Act. This law allows individuals to file administrative claims, and potentially lawsuits, against the federal government for alleged wrongdoing, with the possibility of reaching financial settlements.

This approach would be seen as more flexible and politically acceptable than the creation of a dedicated public fund, which was ultimately rejected by the administration. It would also allow for applications to be processed on a case-by-case basis, rather than through a comprehensive, state-funded system.

A senior Justice Department official, Stanley Woodward, told Reuters that the original plan had now been abandoned. "As far as I'm concerned, this fund is dead," he stated, while emphasizing that individual appeals remained possible through existing legal procedures.

The Republican president has repeatedly expressed his support for the idea of ​​federal compensation for his supporters, whom he believes were targeted through the manipulation of state apparatus under the presidency of his Democratic predecessor. Joe Biden.

The initial proposal for compensation funds had sparked intense political and legal debate in the United States, due in particular to its connection with the events of January 6, 2021, when supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of the presidential election.

With the abandonment of this budgetary approach, discussions are now moving to the courts, where the Federal Tort Claims Act could pave the way for a proliferation of individual lawsuits against the federal government.