DOJ says anti-weaponization fund will not proceed

The Justice Department told federal courts Friday that the Trump administration’s proposed “anti-weaponization” fund is not moving forward, while urging judges not to issue longer-term orders blocking the initiative.

In filings in Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., Justice Department lawyers argued that lawsuits challenging the fund should be rejected because the program was never set up and no longer presents a live legal dispute. The fund has been described as a roughly $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion program intended to compensate people who say they “suffered weaponization and lawfare.”

“This dispute concerns an Anti-Weaponization Fund that had not been set up and is now not going forward. As a result, Plaintiffs’ claims are not justiciable,” the department wrote in filings signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and Andrew Block, his senior counsel.

In a separate passage cited by NBC News, Block and other Justice Department representatives wrote: “This is a rare case that is simultaneously moot and premature.” They said no money had been transferred to the fund, no members had been appointed to the five-person panel that would decide awards, and no procedures had been established for claims.

“No Members were appointed. No claims procedures were established. No claims were formally submitted, received, adjudicated, granted, or denied,” the department wrote.

The filings appear to be the Trump administration’s first written statement in court that the fund will not continue. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House committee Tuesday that the Justice Department was “not moving forward” with the program, but he did not commit that statement to writing at the time, CBS News reported. President Donald Trump has continued to defend the idea, calling the fund “a beautiful thing” and saying it was “so important,” while telling reporters he was not sure whether it was dead or on hold.

The fund emerged as part of a purported settlement of Trump’s civil lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns by a government contractor. The lawsuit included Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and their company. The Justice Department wrote Friday that Trump’s “lawsuits against the United States presented unique challenges” because he is president, but that presidents “do not forfeit their legal rights.”

The fund drew immediate legal and political opposition because it could potentially provide taxpayer-funded payouts to people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants have indicated they want payments, NBC News reported.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia temporarily blocked the Justice Department last week from taking action on the fund “to ensure that no funds are irreversibly disbursed” while she considers whether to grant longer-term relief. A hearing is scheduled for June 12. The Virginia case was brought by several plaintiffs, including former Jan. 6 prosecutor Andrew Floyd. Another case in Washington was filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. At least four other lawsuits seek to block the fund, including one by two officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6 and called it a “slush fund” for “insurrectionists.”

The Justice Department said the plaintiffs lack standing because they cannot show they were injured by a fund that was never implemented. “The equities and the public interest do not favor this Court interjecting itself in a political process to shut down a Fund that is already not going forward,” department lawyers wrote.

Even if the anti-weaponization fund does not proceed, NBC News reported that the Justice Department can still use the long-standing Judgment Fund to settle lawsuits or claims against the United States. Stacey Young, founder of Justice Connection, said Blanche was “pulling a bait and switch, telling lawmakers the anti-weaponization fund is dead while plotting other ways to pay Jan. 6 rioters.” A Justice Department spokesperson told NBC News the Judgment Fund has always been available to anyone.

Claire Douglass, a spokesperson for Manifest America, said opponents of Trump would seek compensation if the fund is revived, including $2.3 billion for D.C. taxpayers for costs such as “lost local productivity from mandatory federal jury service for January 6th cases.”