A New Bill Would Let You Sue Federal Officials, Up to the President, to Claw Back What Corruption Stole

The Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act would empower ordinary citizens and state attorneys general to sue in the name of the United States to recover funds obtained through corruption by covered officials, including the President and Vice President. It was introduced July 30.

Stop for a second and think about the last time you felt powerless watching someone in power get away with something. If you’re like me, this thought happens daily and it usually involves Donald Trump and others in his administration wasting our tax dollars.

That feeling has a fix now. On July 30, 2026, Senator Alex Padilla and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer introduced the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act, landmark new legislation in the wake of the unprecedented corruption of the second Trump Administration. And buried inside the legalese is something that changes the game for regular people like you.¹

If passed, you can finally sue. And you can do it on behalf of the entire country.

Here’s what that means. The bill would establish a private right of action for the public and state Attorneys General to sue for recoveries and forfeitures from certain federal officials, including the President and Vice President. The idea is to recover money belong to Americans that’s been taken by corruption.

This isn’t a committee. It’s not a task force that meets behind closed doors. This gives you the right. It gives a state attorney general the right to stand up in court to take back stolen public money.

This isn’t a wild new idea pulled out of thin air. The bill creates a private right of action that mirrors the False Claims Act, a federal law that prevents companies and individuals from making illegal financial claims against the government.

The False Claims Act has worked since the Civil War. It lets ordinary people file suit in the name of the United States and rewards them for recovering public funds. This legislation takes that proven tool and points it straight at the highest offices in the land. It empowers American citizens and attorneys general to sue in the name of the United States to recover money obtained through corruption by presidents, senior officials, key campaign figures and major government contractors.

And before you assume this opens the floodgates to frivolous lawsuits, the sponsors already closed that door. Schumer built in provisions that give priority to state attorneys general and to larger, more severe cases of corruption to ensure that frivolous suits don’t get in the way of justice. I’ve been litigating cases for four decades and took the time to read the proposed bill. It’s good and with a few minor changes, I believe it would finally give the average American the ability to hold wrongdoers in Washington DC accountable.

Now here’s where most reform bills fall apart. They create a watchdog, and then the person being watched simply defunds it, fires its leaders, or starves it into silence. The people who wrote this bill saw that coming.

So they built armor around it.

The Bureau would be led by a seven-member, Senate-confirmed board with fixed terms, strict independence protections and partisan-balance requirements. No party gets to stack it. The board would be capped at three members from each party, with the seventh being nonpartisan.

Then comes the funding armor. The bill would create the Freedom From Influence Fund as a dedicated, self-financing source of revenue, preventing a president from using the budget process to starve the Bureau into submission. It funds itself, similar to the Federal Reserve. A president cannot cut off its oxygen. And if one tries to disable it by leaving seats empty, a special three-judge division of the DC Circuit is empowered to appoint temporary board members, so the bureau never loses its quorum.

That is what accountability with teeth looks like.

The bill also cleans up the mess we already have. Right now, oversight is scattered across agencies that trip over each other. This legislation would consolidate the Federal Election Commission, Office of Government Ethics and Office of Special Counsel within the new Bureau. One roof. One mission. Sweeping investigative, subpoena, and enforcement power aimed at executive branch self-dealing, conflicts of interest, and the kind of crypto and foreign-money entanglements that have dominated headlines.

The public is on board with this. A Brennan Center for Justice poll earlier this year found that 92% of all voters, including Republicans, Democrats and independents, believe corruption is a problem in government and politics. And 81% of voters support the creation of a new federal ethics enforcer. This is nearly everyone.

With Republicans holding the Senate majority, the Act has little realistic chance of reaching the floor this Congress. Schumer said it plainly: “I’m not going to pretend this legislation’s a panacea. It’s not. But it’s a big, important first step.” The sponsors have framed it as groundwork for future oversight, and it will be part of the Democrats’ agenda when they reclaim the majority after the midterms.

Learn what this bill does. Read and talk about it (the link is below). Call the people who represent you and tell them where you stand. Corruption thrives on your silence and your assumption that nothing can change. This bill is proof that it can.

Mitch Jackson, Esq.

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1. The “Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act” (read text here)