By Andrew Goudsward and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff
WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from setting up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of what Trump has called government “weaponization.”
The order by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia blocks the Trump administration from “taking any further action” to set up or operate the fund while the judge hears additional legal arguments. The order will remain in effect at least until June 12.
The Justice Department announced the creation of an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” last week as part of an agreement to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax records.
It set up a $1.776 billion fund overseen by a five-member commission to dole out payments to those who show they were victims of “lawfare” and “weaponization,” terms Trump and his allies have used to describe investigations and criminal cases against them.
Friday’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a group that said it was targeted “by the Trump-Vance administration as ideological or political opponents” and alleged they would be ineligible for payouts from the fund.
“This is a victory for transparency, the rule of law, and the American people,” said Skye Perryman, the head of Democracy Forward, the anti-Trump group that brought the lawsuit. “No administration has the authority to spend public money through a political rewards program.”
A Justice Department spokesperson said the department “remains extremely confident in the legality” of the fund. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said there are no partisan requirements on eligibility for compensation.
“We will not allow the policy preferences of judges to interfere with our efforts to provide restitution to victims of lawfare,” the DOJ spokesperson said.
The fund spurred a backlash, even from some lawmakers in Trump’s Republican Party, who expressed anger that some people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, could receive taxpayer-funded payouts. It was widely derided as a “slush fund” that would reward Trump’s political allies.
Democracy Forward’s lawsuit is one of at least three challenging the creation of the fund.
Brinkema said the temporary order was necessary to maintain the status quo and prevent funds from being “irreversibly disbursed” before she considered the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order against the fund.
The group suing includes a former DOJ prosecutor who prosecuted January 6 rioters and a California professor who was arrested while protesting an immigration raid.
The decision came after the plaintiffs said government lawyers assured them that no money had been moved to the fund, but refused to provide more than 24 hours’ notice before any transfer. The group said this was “patently insufficient,” and could result in the fund beginning operations before courts determined whether it was legal.
The department has not named any of the five commissioners, who are set to be appointed by Blanche. The DOJ said it planned to move money into the fund within 60 days of its announcement on May 18.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Jonathan Stempel; editing by Michelle Nichols, Chizu Nomiyama, Rod Nickel)
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