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

By Katelyn Polantz, Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — 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acting Attorney General Todd Blanche or others haven’t said under oath the proposed fund was dead, that they haven’t rescinded the so-called settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS establishing the fund, and that Trump himself has suggested he still wants the fund to exist.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.”

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.

The case at hand was brought last month by a group of people and organizations — including a former federal prosecutor, a prominent government watchdog group and a group supporting abortion providers — that argue the fund is unconstitutional and violates a series of federal laws. The plaintiffs say they were all targeted by the Trump administration and therefore would be unable to apply for compensation from the fund, which they say was set up to only pay people who claim they were unfairly pursued by Democratic administrations.

In court on Friday, attorneys for the coalition pointed to the fact that the National Abortion Federation was worried that people who were prosecuted for committing violence around clinics would re-commit crimes toward providers after being compensated by the government for those earlier prosecutions, which the Trump administration has criticized.

“The balance of the harms tips clearly in favor of plaintiffs,” Brinkema said, acknowledging those concerns. She also concluded that the fund violates the separation of powers, saying it trampled on Congress’ authority over the nation’s purse.

“This ruling is a significant victory for the Constitution, the rule of law, and people in America,” said Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which brought the case before Brinkema.

“Despite the administration’s shifting explanations about the future of the slush fund, the court’s order ensures that taxpayer dollars cannot be distributed through this unlawful scheme while the courts fully consider the serious constitutional issues at stake,” Perryman said.

In the DC case on Wednesday, Leon went the opposite direction. He said he was “expressly relying” on the representations from the Department of Justice in court papers and to lawmakers that the fund was dead, and declined to decide at this time whether the plan was lawful.

But Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, warned that he could change his mind at a later point if he learned that officials were changing course yet again.

“Don’t play possum with this court,” he told Block.

This story has been updated with additional details.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.