A federal judge in Virginia on Friday extended her block on the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion compensation fund for individuals who believe they were victims of an alleged “weaponized” federal government.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema’s ruling extends the band-aid block she initially ordered on May 29 to prevent the Department of Justice from launching the taxpayer-funded $1.8 billion pay-out system, which critics refer to as a “slush fund.”
“The Anti-Weaponization Fund presents an immediate and dire threat to our constitutional order and the authority of Congress,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., wrote in a brief they filed in the case, which Brinkema read aloud in court Friday.
“Indeed, among other purposes, the Fund is designed to compensate the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th,” the senators wrote. The some 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters President Donald Trump pardoned upon his return to the White House in 2025 are among those most likely to profit from such a settlement fund.
Trump’s Department of Justice established the fund as part of a settlement stemming from the president’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The account, every penny of which comes from taxpayer dollars, would establish a “lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization” to “seek redress,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at the time of its announcement.
But a groundswell of opposition from Republicans on Capitol Hill forced the Trump administration to back down. On June 2, Blanche announced at a congressional hearing “we’re not moving forward with the fund, period.”
Blanche’s abandonment of the fund did little to dissuade organizations that opposed the fund from pressing forward with a lawsuit to stop it. A a coalition of former Jan. 6 prosecutors and nonprofit organizations that brought the Virginia suit argued Blanche’s statements were not legally binding.
They also pointed to Trump’s continued public push for the fund after Blanche’s congressional testimony.
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Sydney Carruth
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.
Lillie Boudreaux