WASHINGTON — The Justice Department told a federal judge that even though the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is “not going forward,” it still opposes the court taking any action to block the initiative on a more permanent basis.
In a filing Friday afternoon, Justice Department attorney Andrew Block and other DOJ representatives said that no money had been transferred to the fund and that no members of the five-person panel tasked with making decisions about distributing the funds had been appointed.
“This is a rare case that is simultaneously moot and premature,” they wrote. “One of the reasons Plaintiffs were forced to speculate so much about how the Fund would operate is because so little had happened when they sued.”
The Trump administration argued that the plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit — including a fired Jan. 6 prosecutor — lacked standing to bring the case because they can’t show they were injured by the fund’s existence.
“No Members were appointed. No claims procedures were established. No claims were formally submitted, received, adjudicated, granted, or denied,” they wrote. The fund was designed to compensate people who say they “suffered weaponization and lawfare.”
“The United States thus opposes Plaintiffs’ request for relief on justiciability and other grounds — not because the Fund will continue (it will not), but to protect the government’s institutional interests in the proper application of Article III limitations on judicial review,” the DOJ added.
The Trump administration has sent mixed messages about the status and future of the $1.8 billion fund, which emerged last month as part of a purported settlement with the IRS after Trump sued the government he controls in a lawsuit that included his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and their company.
In the Friday court filing, the Justice Department wrote that Trump’s “lawsuits against the United States presented unique challenges” because he is chief executive, but that presidents “do not forfeit their legal rights.”
While the Trump administration appeared to back off the fund this week, with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche telling members of Congress that the Justice Department was “not moving forward with the fund, period,” Trump told reporters the fund was “a beautiful thing” that was “so important” and that he wasn’t sure if the fund was dead or just on hold.
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia temporarily halted the Justice Department from taking action on the fund last week after former Jan. 6 prosecutor Andrew Floyd and others filed a lawsuit. Brinkema has set a hearing for June 12 to hear arguments on whether to block the fund for an extended period.
At least four other lawsuits are seeking to block the fund, including one filed by two officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6 and have called the pot of money a “slush fund” for “insurrectionists.”
Even without the “anti-weaponization” fund, the Justice Department has a mechanism to give out taxpayer-funded settlements to Trump allies and potentially to Jan. 6 rioters, hundreds of whom have indicated they want payouts. The Judgment Fund, which long predates the Trump administration, allows the federal government to make payments as part of settlements of lawsuits or claims against the U.S., and several Jan. 6 defendants have already made claims or filed lawsuits.
Stacey Young, who founded the group Justice Connection, a group supporting Justice Department employees and alumni, said the Trump administration could make payouts even if the $1.8 billion fund itself doesn’t move forward.
“Todd Blanche is pulling a bait and switch, telling lawmakers the anti-weaponization fund is dead while plotting other ways to pay Jan. 6 rioters,” Young said in a statement to NBC News. “The Judgment Fund is taxpayer money. Any money dispersed through that fund must adhere to the statute and be accountable to the taxpayer. We shouldn’t let our guard down based only on assurances meant to appease members of Congress.”
Trump has said he will nominate Blanche to be the next attorney general.
In response to a request for comment on Young’s statement, a Justice Department spokesperson reconfirmed that the Judgment Fund has always been available to anyone.
If the “anti-weaponization” fund is resurrected, there are many Trump opponents who plan to flood the system with requests for compensation for the actions of the Trump administration.
Claire Douglass, a spokesperson for Manifest America, a public interest advocacy initiative, said the government should pay $2.3 billion to D.C. taxpayers for uncompensated funds, including “lost local productivity from mandatory federal jury service for January 6th cases.” Her husband served on a federal jury for a case involving a Capitol riot defendant who was later pardoned by Trump alongside hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters.
“You’re being a citizen, you’re participating in democracy, this is how it’s supposed to work,” Douglass said of her husband’s service on a jury. “And then the slap in the face of a total and complete pardon.”
