A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” created as part of an unprecedented settlement with the president, his family and the Trump Org.
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U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia entered the order on Friday after a Jan. 6 prosecutor and others sued to block the fund last week.
The fund is being operated out of the Justice Department, which didn’t immediately comment on the order.
Both Democrats and Republicans have criticized the fund. Opponents have labeled it a massive “slush fund” for Trump’s allies. Its existence has alarmed some legal experts, in part because there will be very little public oversight over how it is managed. Senate Republican leaders last week punted a vote on a GOP package to fund ICE and the Border Patrol until June in part because of concerns over the fund, NBC News reported.
The Trump administration can not take any further action on the fund while legal motions are pending, “which includes the transferring of money to the fund; the consideration of any claims submitted to the fund; and the disbursing of any funds from the fund,” according to the order.
The judge said the order was necessary to “ensure that no funds are irreversibly disbursed from the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ while their are motions pending to block the distribution of funds.
The process to apply for money can’t officially begin until five commissioners are chosen to decide how the money is doled out, though people who claim they were targeted by the government have already requested money. The White House referred questions to DOJ.
It’s also not clear how people would formally apply. The pool of possible applicants is substantial, according to DOJ.
Andrew Floyd, who headed a task force in the now-closed Capitol Siege Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, before he was dismissed in July, filed a declaration in connection with the lawsuit on Thursday.
The Trump administration “is gifting the people I helped investigate and prosecute after January 6” access to what he describes as an illegally created process designed to “rush money out the door to perceived political allies, while treating me and people like me as disfavored enemies.”
