BREAKING: Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s $1.8 Billion “Anti-Weaponization” Slush Fund
A federal judge is making sure Trump can’t use your tax dollars as a personal piggy bank. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema extended her court order blocking the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” on Friday, refusing to lift the block despite the administration’s claims that the fund had been abandoned.
The fund was originally created to compensate people who claimed to be victims of a so-called weaponized government, and it was tied directly to Trump’s own lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Critics on both sides of the aisle raised alarms, arguing the administration was illegally funneling taxpayer money into a fund that could benefit Trump’s political allies, including potentially the January 6th rioters Trump has long championed.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the fund was being scrapped after a fierce bipartisan backlash, but Judge Brinkema wasn’t buying assurances alone. She noted that Trump himself had never publicly endorsed the cancellation and kept expressing support for the fund in remarks to reporters. “The mootness argument, in my view, doesn’t go anywhere,” the judge said plainly.
Brinkema gave the parties one week to negotiate a sworn declaration from Blanche confirming the administration will not revive the fund. She also highlighted a glaring problem with the government’s case: no one in the Justice Department could explain why Blanche hadn’t simply formally rescinded his original order establishing the fund. “It’s a huge gap in the record,” the judge said.
The plaintiffs challenging the fund include a fired prosecutor and a college professor who was acquitted of charges stemming from a protest, both of whom argued the fund was a legally dubious vehicle for rewarding Trump’s political base. Democracy Forward, the legal advocacy group representing them, called the court’s continued block a critical safeguard.
No money was ever paid out from the fund, and no claims were accepted, but the fight to keep it permanently off the table is far from over.