{"id":696816,"date":"2026-06-11T02:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T02:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696816\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T02:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T02:01:13","slug":"judge-rejects-bid-to-block-1-8b-anti-weaponization-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696816\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge rejects bid to block $1.8B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a government watchdog\u2019s request for a court order temporarily blocking the Trump administration from forging ahead with a new $1.776 billion settlement fund<\/a> for compensating people who claim to be victims of a weaponized government.<\/p>\n

But the judge ended a hearing by issuing a \u201cfair warning\u201d to President Donald Trump\u2019s administration: \u201cDon\u2019t play possum with this court,\u201d U.S. District Judge Richard Leon told a government attorney.<\/p>\n

Leon ruled from the bench in favor of the administration, which argued that the watchdog\u2019s lawsuit is moot because acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress<\/a> earlier this month that the government is scrapping its plans for the fund. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said he accepts Blanche\u2019s representation for now.<\/p>\n

The judge\u2019s refusal to issue a temporary restraining order isn\u2019t the final word on the fate of the government\u2019s \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund.\u201d Leon said he will consider a separate request by the plaintiffs \u2014 Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington \u2014 for a preliminary injunction that would block payouts from the fund on a more permanent basis.<\/p>\n

A different federal judge, sitting in Alexandria, Virginia, already has temporarily blocked the fund\u2019s operations. However, that order by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema is due to expire Friday unless she extends it after a hearing on the same day.<\/p>\n

The administration created the fund last month to resolve Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The Justice Department hasn\u2019t formed the five-member commission that will decide on payout criteria, so there has been no money paid out nor claims accepted.<\/p>\n

The fund has generated a fierce bipartisan backlash. Even many of the Republican president\u2019s allies are opposed to compensating rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol<\/a> on Jan. 6, 2021. During a May 19 congressional hearing<\/a>, Blanche wouldn\u2019t rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police<\/a> at the Capitol could be eligible for fund payouts.<\/p>\n

Later, during a House hearing on June 2, Blanche said, \u201cWe are not moving forward with the fund, period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot moving forward ever?\u201d asked Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrect,\u201d Blanche answered.<\/p>\n

Leon asked Justice Department attorney Andrew Block why Blanche doesn\u2019t formally rescind his May 18 order establishing the fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know the reason for that,\u201d Block said.<\/p>\n

Block said Blanche\u2019s statements to Congress are sufficient to moot the watchdog\u2019s claims. He also argued that the group doesn\u2019t have the legal standing to bring them.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Nikhel Sus noted that Trump himself contradicted Blanche\u2019s testimony. During an interview on June 3, a day after Blanche\u2019s House testimony, Trump expressed support for continuing with the fund despite the Virginia judge\u2019s ruling against it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn paper, the fund is still a legally operating entity,\u201d Sus said. \u201cNothing has changed.\u201d <\/p>\n

A federal judge in Florida overseeing Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the IRS ordered Trump\u2019s attorneys to respond to \u201cgrievous allegations\u201d by settlement critics that the president abandoned his claims to avoid the court\u2019s scrutiny of an illegal deal. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams gave them until Friday to respond in writing<\/a> to allegations of collusion and whether the case should be reopened because the court was the \u201cvictim of a fraud.\u201d <\/p>\n

In Virginia, attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward are seeking a court order halting the fund\u2019s implementation and preventing the Trump administration from disbursing any payouts from it. The plaintiffs in the Virginia case include a fired prosecutor and a college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents at a protest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a government watchdog\u2019s request for a court order temporarily…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,301836,2302,3506,3505,12,793,12805,3138,301837,14596,3130,2221,3,111,201965,116294,267317,12202,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,5148,800],"class_list":["post-696816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-andrew-block","tag-courts","tag-dc-wire","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-george-w-bush","tag-government-and-politics","tag-grace-meng","tag-kathleen-williams","tag-lawsuits","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-richard-j-leon","tag-todd-blanche","tag-trump-hub","tag-trump-lawsuits","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-virginia","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}