Judge says she doesn’t believe ‘anti-weaponization’ fund is dead; extends order blocking

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A federal judge on Friday said she doesn’t believe President Donald Trump’s plan for a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” is fully dead, and issued an order indefinitely blocking the proposal.

Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia said she has decided to block the fund under a court order because acting Attorney General Todd Blanche or others haven’t said under oath the proposed fund was dead, that they haven’t rescinded the so-called settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS establishing the fund, and that Trump himself has suggested he still wants the fund to exist.

“When the President of the United States says” he wants something to happen, Brinkema said in court Friday morning, “that’s a pretty good indicator there will be an incentive and motive to make it happen.”

The fund could “rear its head” again in the future, the judge added, describing the prospect of US Capitol rioters getting payments as “problematic.”

In a written ruling issued later Friday, Brinkema said officials are barred “from taking any action to create or operate” the fund, as well as “reconstituting the Anti-Weaponization Fund under a different name.” She instructed the Justice Department to update her by next Friday on its compliance with her ruling.

The judge’s decisions Friday, building on a separate court hearing earlier this week in a different challenge to the fund, add fuel to the continued controversy over the program – even as the acting attorney general has said it will not move forward.

Brinkema and Judge Richard Leon in Washington, DC, both made clear in their respective hearings that they are skeptical the Trump administration is sincere in saying they no longer have a plan to pay off Trump supporters previously convicted of crimes.

Brinkema, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, is giving the Justice Department a week to decide whether it wants to submit a sworn statement from a top official stating in “unambiguous” terms that the fund is dead for good. If she receives such a promise, she said, she may decide that the case is moot.

“I do not have in this record the type of uncontestable evidence that this could not be repeated,” she told Justice Department attorney Andrew Block.

Brinkema originally blocked the fund late last month on a short-term and temporary basis as lawmakers from both parties rebelled against the proposal, eventually leading to Blanche telling a congressional committee it would not move forward.

But Trump and Blanche continue to express interest in creating some kind of mechanism to pay those they believe have been victimized by prior administrations and DOJ has not issued anything in writing reversing its earlier orders.

The Justice Department has argued the fund was dead, and any court order wasn’t needed.

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