Clause in Senate package benefits Trump allies who are being investigated

A clause included in the budget agreement approved this week by the United States Senate gives eight Republican senators the right to sue the government itself for up to $500,000 each — the same lawmakers whose phone records were obtained in the investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Proposed by majority leader John Thune, the measure was approved with the vote of the beneficiaries themselves, raising suspicions of a conflict of interest within the US Senate.

The package now goes to a vote in the Chamber of Representatives, which should analyze the proposal and forward it to President Donald Trump for approval this Thursday (13).

The device was incorporated into the federal financing package approved to reopen the United States government, which brings together three budget projects. The package is a scaled-down version of the annual budget and known in Washington as a “minibus.”

Proposed by the majority leader, Republican John Thune, the measure was approved with the vote of eight senators, provoking an immediate reaction from Democratic parliamentarians and accusations of favoritism within the Senate.

According to the Politicothe inclusion was personally overseen by Thune, without consulting the Democrats on the responsible committee.

The text establishes that telephone companies and electronic providers must notify senators’ offices if they receive a court subpoena to disclose their data. If this requirement is not met, the parliamentarian may sue the government and receive minimum compensation of half a million dollars, in addition to costs and legal fees.

In the United States, the functioning of the government depends on the periodic approval of the federal budget by Congress, responsible for releasing resources to keep public services in operation, paying employees and funding public bodies and apparatus such as federal parks and the flight control system, for example.

When this agreement is postponed due to political impasse, the government goes into shutdown, a situation in which thousands of employees are left without pay and essential services are interrupted.

The current strike, which should end this Thursday (13), was the longest in the country’s history.

The content of the clause, described by the New York Times as “discreet” and by Reuters as “controversial”, went almost unnoticed during the budget debate.

Only after approval did it come to light that the eight senators favored by the device — Lindsey Graham, Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson and Cynthia Lummis — voted in favor of the benefit itself.

The provision is retroactive to 2022, a period in which special prosecutor Jack Smith, appointed by the Department of Justice, was investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the results of the elections that gave victory to Joe Biden, in the context of the attempt to take over the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

No consultation clause and conflict of interest

Senator Martin Heinrich reacted with outrage upon learning that the amendment had been included without debate.

“I am furious that the minority and majority leaders parachuted this provision into this bill at the eleventh hour — without any consultation or negotiation with the subcommittee that actually oversees this work. That is exactly what is wrong with the Senate,” he said.

The clause determines that the Department of Justice can no longer hide from parliamentarians when it requests access to their telephone or electronic records, forcing companies and providers to notify the office of the senator involved.

The only exception occurs when the parliamentarian is formally the target of an ongoing criminal investigation, in which case the notice can be delayed for up to 60 days so as not to compromise the investigations.

Furthermore, the text removes legal protections that normally shield the federal government, known as qualified and sovereign immunities, which means that the State will not be able to invoke its institutional status to defend itself against these processes — a measure that facilitates senators’ legal actions and increases the potential for compensation.

Senator Ted Cruz, who claimed to have had his own data requested by Jack Smith, publicly defended the measure and attributed its authorship to Thune.

Cruz stated that the initiative was articulated by Thune to reinforce the protection of parliamentarians in the face of investigations carried out in recent years.

“Leader Thune inserted this into the project to give real force to the ban on the Department of Justice investigating senators,” he declared about the shield.

Then, the Republican intensified his criticism of the previous government, stating that “the abuse of power by Biden’s Justice Department is the worst single case of politicization that our country has ever seen. I think it’s Joe Biden’s Watergate.”

Republicans convert investigation into compensation

During the 2021 investigation, Special Counsel Jack Smith and the FBI subpoenaed telephone operators to obtain metadata on calls from senators and aides close to Trump — call logs, duration and times, but not the content of the conversations.

Smith stated that the procedure was legitimate, judicially authorized and necessary to understand the dynamics of the attack on the Capitol and other actions that Trumpism took to reverse Biden’s election.

Republicans, on the other hand, turned the episode into a political flag, accusing the Biden government of “instrumentalizing the State” and “spying on Congress”.

The new law now grants the same parliamentarians the right to sue the government that conducted the investigation, which, in practice, guarantees them millionaire compensation. Senator Marsha Blackburn, one of the beneficiaries, stated that the initiative seeks to correct an “abuse of power”.

“We will not rest until justice is done and those who were involved in this government instrumentalization are held accountable,” he declared.

Democrats classified the device as “institutional self-protection” and a disguised “financial bonus”.

“Not a penny for public health, but the Republicans included a corrupt bonus of at least $500,000 for each one,” joked Senator Patty Murray.

For Ron Wyden, known as a defender of privacy, the maneuver “takes a reasonable protection against government surveillance and turns it into an unacceptable concession of public money to Republican senators”.

From the attack on the Capitol to legislative revenge

The case marks a reversal of discourse in the Republican party. After years of accusing the Biden administration of “using the State against opponents”, senators now benefit from a law that transforms a judicial investigation into financial compensation.

The North American press describes the measure as a “self-protection clause” and a symbol of the ethical hollowing out of Congress, approved without transparency and under pressure to reopen the government.

O Politico It also revealed that Judge James Boasberg, who had authorized the secrecy of telephone subpoenas, became the target of an impeachment campaign led by congressmen allied with Trump. The episode is another chapter in the dispute between the Executive and Legislative branches since Trump’s return to the White House in 2025.

Jack Smith formally closed the investigation into the coup attempt following Donald Trump’s re-election, invoking the rule that prevents the Justice Department from prosecuting a sitting president.

In the final report, however, he wrote that “the evidence gathered would be sufficient for a conviction.”