Judge extends block on Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’

Alexandria, Virginia– A federal judge on Friday agreed to extend a court-ordered ban on establishing and operating a $1.8 billion settlement fund to compensate people who claim to be victims of an armed government.

Note: Video from a previous report.

Earlier this month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress that the government had scrapped its plans for the fund in the face of bipartisan backlash. Government lawyers have argued that lawsuits challenging the fund are now moot, but plaintiffs’ lawyers are dissatisfied with Blanche’s assertions that the fund will not move forward.

That was not the case with US District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who ruled that the Arms Control Fund would remain blocked until further notice from the court.

“The (government’s) lack of clarity argument, in my opinion, leads nowhere,” the judge said.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has not publicly and unequivocally supported its repeal. He continued to express his support for the fund in statements to reporters.

Brinkema gave the parties a week to negotiate an agreement under which Blanche would submit a sworn statement that the administration would not revive the fund.

Brinkema earlier agreed to temporarily block the administration from moving forward with the fund for at least two weeks. Her May 29 order was scheduled to expire on Friday.

The Republican Trump administration created the fund to resolve a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

The plaintiffs, who sued to block the payment, argue that the government cannot legally divert taxpayer money into what they say is a slush fund to compensate Trump allies.

In a separate case on Wednesday, another judge in Washington, D.C., denied a parallel request from a government watchdog for a court order temporarily blocking the Trump administration from moving forward with the fund. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said he accepted Blanche’s report that the fund was now moot.

Leon had asked Justice Department lawyer Andrew Block why Blanche had not formally rescinded his May 18 order establishing the fund. Block said he didn’t know. He didn’t have an answer to that question when Brinkema asked it two days later.

“It’s a big gap in the record that we don’t have an answer to that question,” the judge said.

In the Virginia case, lawyers from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward asked for an order temporarily suspending implementation of the fund and preventing the Trump administration from making any payments from it.

The plaintiffs include a fired prosecutor and a university professor who was acquitted of assaulting federal agents during a protest.

Even before the administration announced it was dropping the fund, the Justice Department had not formed a five-member committee that would decide payment criteria, so no money was paid and claims were not accepted.

Many of the Republican president’s allies oppose compensation for the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. However, in May, Blanche did not rule out the possibility that rioters who participated at the Capitol might be eligible to apply for payments from the fund.

Trump issued a mass pardon to Capitol rioters on his first day in the White House last year. More than 1,500 people were charged in the January 6 attack, before Trump erased all the cases with his sweeping act of clemency.

Brinkema was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.