Judge blocks Trump’s $1.7B anti-weaponization fund

A federal judge in Virginia issued an order on Thursday barring federal officials from using the Department of Justice’s new anti-weaponization fund. The Trump administration established the $1.8 billion settlement fund in May for people unjustly targeted by the government. The fund is scheduled to end a few weeks before Trump’s second term expires.

Is this fund legal? The fund’s establishment came out of a settlement agreement President Donald Trump brokered with the Internal Revenue Service. Trump brought a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS earlier this year over a former IRS contractor allegedly leaking the president’s tax information. Trump included the nearly $1.8 billion fund as a condition for dropping the case. The fund would compensate citizens against whom the government had been unfairly weaponized, according to acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.

So if the fund was legally established, why is a judge ordering an injunction? Several Capitol police officers who were on duty during the Jan. 6 riots filed a lawsuit less than two weeks ago to stop the fund’s creation. Officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges characterized the fund as illegal, and alleged that the money would support people they described as violent paramilitary groups and pro-Trump insurrectionists.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema’s Thursday order barred Trump officials from moving forward with establishing the fund or making payments from it while litigation was ongoing. The Clinton-appointed judge planned to hear arguments in two weeks on the possible extension of the order blocking officials from creating and using the fund.