A federal judge on Friday extended her block on the Trump administration\u2019s \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund, frustrated that the Department of Justice has not said under penalty of perjury whether the fund is truly dead.<\/p>\n
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Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia said \u201cnone of those statements\u201d from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche or the president \u201chave been made under the penalty of perjury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Blanche told House lawmakers<\/a>, \u201cWe\u2019re not moving forward with the fund, period.\u201d But the next day, President Donald Trump told reporters, \u201cI don\u2019t know<\/a>,\u201d when asked whether the fund was on hold or eliminated.<\/p>\n Brinkema also drilled down on Justice Department attorney Andrew Block, who has not answered why the DOJ has not formally rescinded its memo related to the creation of the \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have the ability to speak directly to the attorney general,\u201d Block said.<\/p>\n \u201cI can not believe, given the significance, you don\u2019t have an answer,\u201d Brinkema shot back. She added that \u201cthere\u2019s a huge gap in the record\u201d if we don\u2019t have an answer to that question.<\/p>\n The ongoing lawsuit stems from the Trump administration\u2019s announcement last month that it planned to set up a $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund<\/a> aimed at paying people who have \u201csuffered weaponization and lawfare\u201d at the hands of the federal government.<\/p>\n If allowed to go forward, the fund could be used to pay those who were charged and later pardoned<\/a> by Trump for their actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In an interview last week with NBC News, the president didn\u2019t rule out<\/a> paying Jan. 6 attendees who were later charged with assaulting law enforcement.<\/p>\n Brinkema on Friday said she\u2019s concerned that if this fund isn\u2019t really dead, it might come back in a different form. <\/p>\n \u201cI think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans,\u201d Trump told NBC News\u2019 Kristen Welker last week. \u201cYou have to get it approved. If they get it approved, that\u2019s great. If they don\u2019t get it approved, I\u2019d be disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n Brinkema said that \u201cwhen the president of the United States says he\u2019s going to be pretty upset if something happens, that\u2019s a pretty good incentive\u201d for those working for him to do something.<\/p>\n Brinkema also said the public doesn\u2019t have a real sense that the fund is dead. The federal court in Alexandria actually received an application to the fund, she said, adding that it was returned to sender. \u201cWe\u2019re not accepting applications,\u201d she said dryly.<\/p>\n But she did say she believes the public is largely against the idea of $1.8 billion in taxpayer dollars being diverted to people who committed crimes against law enforcement, calling it \u201cproblematic.\u201d<\/p>\n Brinkema granted a preliminary injunction blocking the fund until further notice, but added another requirement: \u201cIf the government truly means what it means,\u201d she said, she\u2019s giving the government a week to come up with a declaration from Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stating under penalty of perjury that the fund is really dead.<\/p>\n Following Friday\u2019s injunction, plaintiffs in the case applauded Brinkema\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement: \u201cDespite the administration\u2019s shifting explanations about the future of the slush fund, the court\u2019s order ensures that taxpayer dollars cannot be distributed through this unlawful scheme while the courts fully consider the serious constitutional issues at stake. We look forward to continuing this challenge on behalf of our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n Omar Noureldin, Common Cause\u2019s senior vice president for policy and litigation, said: \u201cToday\u2019s ruling is a massive win, ensuring hard-earned tax dollars stay out of the hands of the President\u2019s cronies and people who violently assaulted law enforcement on January 6 while we\u2019re securing justice for American taxpayers in court. We\u2019ve successfully locked the President\u2019s personal slush fund for now, and we\u2019ll keep the pressure on until it\u2019s shut down for good.\u201d<\/p>\n Former federal prosecutor Andrew Floyd, who was part of a lawsuit to block the fund, said: \u201cI\u2019m heartened that the injunction continues to prevent $1.776 billion in taxpayer money from being used to pay off those who attacked our democracy. I will continue this litigation to ensure that this unconstitutional fund does not erase the accountability imposed by judges and impartial jurors \u2014 and the hard-earned work of the victims, witnesses, law enforcement officers, and prosecutors who delivered it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge on Friday extended her block on the Trump administration\u2019s \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund, frustrated that the Department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-700305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700305","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=700305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}