Judge keeps Trump’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund frozen

A sworn promise becomes the hinge

The Trump administration’s plan for a nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” remained blocked after U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said Justice Department assurances that the program was dead were not enough without sworn declarations from senior officials.abcnews +1 Brinkema extended a preliminary injunction in Alexandria, Virginia, and gave Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a week to attest under penalty of perjury that the fund would not proceed “in any manner, or under any name.”cbsnews

That deadline passed with the government calling the sworn-statement demand unnecessary, while the injunction stayed in place.courthousenews Justice Department lawyer Andrew Block wrote that Blanche’s congressional testimony and government statements in court were sufficient, but Brinkema had already faulted the administration for not rescinding the May 18 order that created the fund.nbcnews +1

The fight turns on whether the case is moot

DOJ lawyers have argued the lawsuits should be dismissed because Blanche told House lawmakers, “We’re not moving forward with the fund, period,” and because no commission had been formed to distribute money.nbcnews +1 A separate federal judge in Washington, Richard Leon, accepted those representations for now and denied Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington a temporary restraining order, though he warned the government, “Don’t play possum with this court.”apnews

Brinkema took the opposite view in the Virginia case, saying statements not made under penalty of perjury left a “huge gap” in the record and did not provide “absolute certainty” that the program would not return.cbsnews She also pointed to President Donald Trump’s public support for compensating Jan. 6 defendants as evidence that the fund could “rear its head” again.abcnews +1

A settlement fund with unusual political stakes

The Justice Department announced the fund as part of a settlement tied to Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax records, setting the amount at $1.776 billion.cnbc +1 The program was described as a mechanism to compensate people who claimed they were targets of federal “weaponization and lawfare,” but critics warned it could route taxpayer money to Trump allies and people convicted after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.cnbc +1

The legal pressure is now moving on several tracks. The Virginia plaintiffs, represented by Democracy Forward, include former prosecutor Andrew Floyd, the city of New Haven, Common Cause and other challengers seeking to permanently block the fund.cnbc +1 In Florida, another federal judge has asked Trump’s lawyers to respond to claims from former federal judges that the IRS settlement may have been a “fraud on the Court,” keeping scrutiny on both the fund and the deal that produced it.cbsnews +1