New York Assemblyman Alex Bores introduced legislation dubbed the Anti-Insurrectionist Act that would impose a 100% state income tax on any New York resident who receives money from the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. The bill targets distributions from a fund the Department of Justice created in exchange for former President Donald Trump dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and related claims tied to the 2016 Russian collusion investigation and the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search.

Bores, a Democrat who represents part of Manhattan in the State Assembly, said in a video posted to X: “It’s simple, if you’re a New Yorker and you take from this illegal slush fund, New York state will tax 100% of it.” He added, “If you storm the Capitol and you take from this slush fund, too bad we’re taking it.” In an emailed response, Bores further explained: “We can’t stop Trump from breaking the law in Washington. But we can decide that in New York, money you got for attacking American democracy is fully taxable.” A draft memo to the State Assembly describes the bill as ensuring that “no resident of this State is enriched by what is, in substance, a publicly-funded political payout negotiated between the President and his own Administration.” A separate memo from Bores’ office states: “This bill ensures that no New York resident will retain any part of those distributions.” The memo argues that a 100% tax rate is justified because the payments “are not, in any conventional sense, compensation. They are not the product of an adversarial proceeding, of findings by a neutral adjudicator, or of any determination of legal liability made by a person outside the President’s own circle of appointees.”

Roughly 80 to 90 of the individuals charged or convicted in connection with the January 6 Capitol attack were from New York state, according to databases compiled by NPR and the Seton Hall University School of Law. A group of House Democrats has characterized the federal fund as a “slush fund” Trump could use to “reward allies, including the nearly 1,600 defendants convicted or charged in connection with the January 6th attack on the Capitol.” The Department of Justice announced the fund would involve a “systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.” The White House referred inquiries about Bores’ bill to the Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.