Judge Leonie Brinkema Halts Trump Administration’s $1.776 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund

A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia temporarily blocked the Trump administration from proceeding with a new $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” halting its formation or any potential payouts for at least the next two weeks.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema scheduled a June 12 hearing on whether to extend her order barring the government from moving forward with the fund while pending litigation challenges it.

ABC News

The fund was created to resolve President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, and the Justice Department said it was “extremely confident” the fund is legally supported “by ample precedent.”

Brinkema’s order also prohibited the Trump administration from transferring any money to the fund, considering any claims, or disbursing any money from it while the case proceeds.

The dispute has drawn backlash since the fund was announced last week, including Republicans pressing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over whether even violent rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could seek compensation.

In Florida, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered Trump’s lawyers to respond to settlement critics’ allegations of “deception” and “fraud,” signaling she may reopen the legal case that led to the fund.

Williams directed the president to file a response by June 12, laying out responses to former judges’ claims that the settlement was “a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the Court.”

AP News

Politico reported that Williams launched the inquiry Friday after closing the lawsuit on her docket last week, and she cited a federal rule requiring attorneys to ensure filings are “not presented for any improper purpose.”

Politico said the judge’s four-page order is directed at Trump, his sons and his company, and does not request any response from the government, noting that the government never submitted any filings in response to the lawsuit.

The underlying dispute began when Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns by a private contractor in 2019 and 2020, and the settlement instead created the nearly $1.8 billion fund for people described as victims of government weaponization.

The Virginia litigation challenging the fund includes plaintiffs such as Andrew Floyd, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Capitol riot cases in Washington before he was fired last year by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, and the suit says the “unlawfulness” of the fund requires that it be “wholly dismantled.”

“US judge halts Trump's $1”

BBC

AP News reported that plaintiffs’ attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward are seeking a court order halting the fund’s implementation and preventing the Trump administration from disbursing any payouts from it, and the Justice Department has not formed the five-member commission that will decide on payout criteria.

In a separate lawsuit described by USA Today, the plaintiffs argued the fund could compensate people the Justice Department deems were investigated improperly, and the order temporarily halted funding or organizing the fund while a judge considers arguments against the program.

USA Today also reported that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, called the fund “one of the most depraved” of Trump’s “corrupt schemes,” and said Democrats would keep fighting it in courts and in Congress.

The stakes in the sources center on whether taxpayer money can be distributed before legality is reviewed, with Brinkema saying it was important to maintain the status quo so no funds are “irreversibly disbursed” from the fund.