Justice Department pauses Trump anti-weaponization fund after court order

The Justice Department said Monday it will stop work on President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund after a federal judge temporarily blocked the program, shelving for now a plan that had drawn lawsuits and sharp criticism from Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

The department said it “disagrees strongly” with the ruling by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia but would comply. Brinkema’s order bars the Justice Department from taking steps to create or operate the fund, including transferring money, considering claims or making payments, while she weighs whether to issue longer-term relief. A hearing is set for June 12.

“The Department will abide by the Court’s ruling,” the Justice Department said in a statement on X. It defended the fund as a program “established in order to make up for the tremendous abuse, harm, and hate unfairly shown to so many people,” saying it was open to anyone “weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise.”

The fund was announced last month as part of a settlement of Trump’s civil lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Trump had sought $10 billion in damages. The administration described the money as compensation for “victims of lawfare” and government “weaponization,” but the proposal quickly became a political and legal flashpoint.

Democrats called it a “slush fund” for Trump allies. Some Republicans also opposed it, raising concerns about self-dealing and the prospect that people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol could seek taxpayer-funded payments. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had not ruled out Jan. 6 defendants as potential claimants, according to Al Jazeera.

Brinkema’s order came in a lawsuit filed by a former federal prosecutor involved in Jan. 6 cases and other plaintiffs. Source reports identified Democracy Forward as representing plaintiffs in that case. Skye Perryman, the group’s president and CEO, said Monday that it would be a “major victory” if the administration was abandoning the fund, but said the legal challenge would continue “until the administration fully abandons the scheme.”

The White House referred questions about the administration’s position to the Justice Department’s statement. Axios, cited by Al Jazeera, reported that an unnamed senior official said the fund was “dead for now,” but the White House had not publicly confirmed that phrasing.

The fund also complicated Republican efforts to pass a $72 billion immigration enforcement funding package for agencies including ICE and the Border Patrol. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that he had spoken with Trump about the issue over the weekend and preferred that the administration end the plan itself. “I do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Thune told reporters.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee, said the Justice Department statement was not enough. “The only thing that’s going to solve this problem, to get immigration funded and law enforced, is for the president to do away with the weaponization fund,” he said, according to NBC News.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would press to ban the fund by law. “If Trump and Republicans are truly abandoning this corrupt scheme, they should have zero problem banning it in law,” he wrote on X.

Separate legal scrutiny continues in Florida, where U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, who oversaw Trump’s IRS lawsuit, has asked for further briefing after 35 retired federal judges argued the settlement was a product of “collusion” and “fraud on the Court.” Williams gave Trump’s lawyers until June 12 to respond, according to source reports.