U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered the Trump administration not to set up or operate the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” set to be run by the Department of Justice.
The decision came on Friday, blocking the initiative before it could move forward.
The fund was included as part of a settlement in which President Donald Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
According to the DOJ press release, the fund is intended “to provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare,” and would have “the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants.”
The program was scheduled to expire on December 1, 2028, near the end of Trump’s second term.
CNN’s Paula Reid provided further context on the order on Friday morning:
We’re learning that a federal judge in Virginia has temporarily blocked the administration from moving ahead with this controversial $1.8 billion fund that could give apologies and/or money to people who believe they were wrongly investigated. Now in a brief order from this federal judge, saying that-, she says that, “‘Pursuant to the creation or operation of the anti-weaponization fund, which includes the transferring of money to the fund, the consideration of any claims submitted to the fund, and the dispersing of any funds from the fund,” all of that is temporarily blocked. She has set a hearing for June 12th to hear arguments on whether this should be a longer pause.
Now what’s not clear to me, Kate [Bolduan], is I spoke with the acting attorney general last week, we did a sit-down interview. He told me that he was in the process of selecting members that would oversee this fund, so it’s really even hasn’t been created yet. It appears this judge’s order would cover Blanche having conversations with people who want to serve on this, selecting members, but Blanche has tried to distance himself from the day-to-day operation of this fund saying he will select the members, there’ll be five members, one will be selected in coordination with Congress. Those members will then set the rules for how this will work. So again, the judge putting a pause on the fund, I think it’s important to note that it really hasn’t been set up yet, but we know this has faced many legal challenges. What is not clear is if these legal challenges will withstand appeal. Standing or who has the right to sue is a little bit fuzzy here given how this is set up, but it appears to be at least a temporary pause on government’s effort to continue with this project.
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