'Congress Could Impeach' Trump Over $1.7B Fund Drawn from Public Money, Says Melber

MSNBC host Ari Melber has raised the prospect of impeachment against President Donald Trump following reports that Trump is poised to settle his $10 billion (£7.87 billion) lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for a $1.7 billion (£1.34 billion) taxpayer-funded compensation fund — one he would effectively control.

Speaking on his programme 'The Beat' on Friday, Melber said the arrangement was 'the type of thing that a Congress could impeach and hold a trial on and review the evidence.' His remarks came hours after ABC News first reported the details of the proposed settlement, which would see Trump drop multiple legal claims against his own government in return for what critics are already calling a presidential 'slush fund.'

A Fund With Sweeping Powers and Little Oversight

According to ABC News, the proposed commission overseeing the fund would have full authority to distribute approximately $1.7 billion (£1.34 billion) in taxpayer money to individuals who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration's alleged 'weaponisation' of the legal system. That pool of potential recipients includes the nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the 6 January Capitol attack, as well as entities potentially linked to Trump himself.

The money would be drawn from the Treasury Department's Judgment Fund — a permanent appropriation used by the federal government to pay court judgments and settlements — making this an unprecedented use of public funds. Under the proposed terms, Trump would hold the authority to remove commission members without cause, and the body would face no obligation to disclose how it awards money or to whom.

Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that Trump acknowledged the awkwardness of the arrangement himself, saying in the Oval Office last October: 'It's interesting because I'm the one that makes a decision, right... It's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself.'

Democrats Call It a 'Slush Fund'

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote on X that Trump was 'dropping his bogus lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a slush fund, courtesy of your tax dollars, that he can use to pay off his political allies.'

Rep Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, went further, saying Trump was orchestrating 'a $1,700,000,000 (£1.34 billion) fraud on the American taxpayer to line the pockets of his MAGA political allies, another instalment in his ongoing effort to turn the federal government into a personal cash machine for his unpopular extremist movement.' The settlement would also cover $230 million (£181 million) in legal claims related to the 2022 search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and the Russia investigation he faced during his first term.

Former White House special counsel Ty Cobb, appearing alongside Melber on 'The Beat', went further, saying: 'With Blanche as a coconspirator, it's pretty clear... it really is Trump just looting the government.'

Where Impeachment Odds Actually Stand

Despite Melber's warning, the path to impeachment remains steep. Kalshi's prediction market placed the probability of Trump being impeached and removed from office at just under 29 percent as of late April — a record high for his second term, but still far from a certainty. Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the Senate, and removing a president requires a two-thirds majority following a trial, a threshold that would demand significant crossover support.

Melber himself framed the impeachment scenario as conditional, noting it would become a more realistic option 'if the Democrats win back the midterms.' With the 2026 midterm elections still months away, the fund's creation remains a political flashpoint rather than an immediate constitutional crisis.

The $1.7 billion (£1.34 billion) fund represents a novel and contested use of government resources at a moment when the boundaries of executive power are already being tested in the courts. Whether it survives legal scrutiny — a federal judge has already questioned whether Trump's IRS lawsuit can proceed, given that he is suing agencies under his own direction — may ultimately determine whether Melber's impeachment warning moves from commentary to consequence.