Attorney General Blanche said Trump’s ‘weaponization fund’ was dead. Now DOJ is appealing

The Department of Justice (DOJ) told a federal judge Friday it’s appealing a scorching court order against President Donald Trump’s attempt to sue himself to create an almost $2 billion fund for his political allies.

In July, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams found that Trump and his two eldest sons’ $10-billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of the Treasury was “improper” and brought only to legitimize an extraordinary settlement between the DOJ and the Trump family.

As part of the settlement, the DOJ was set to establish a $1.776 billion slush fund to compensate the president’s allies — including his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But in a notice to U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams Friday evening, acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter said the DOJ is now taking her ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The appeal comes even though Attorney General Todd Blanche, one of Trump’s former personal defense lawyers who ultimately signed off on the settlement, repeatedly told the public and lawmakers during his confirmation process in August that the weaponization fund “was dead.” 

The “anti-weaponization” fund, as the DOJ dubbed it, drew bipartisan criticism in Congress and put Blanche’s nomination as attorney general in jeopardy.

The agreement also included conditions that would permanently insulate the president, his family members, and businesses from IRS audits. Those aspects of the agreement remain in place.

It’s unclear exactly what the DOJ seeks from the appeal.

Williams’ order did not formally eliminate the settlement, since it was a purely executive-branch arrangement. But her findings of collusion and improper purpose created a factual record that could support future efforts to void the settlement.

The judge concluded that Trump controlled both sides of the litigation because he was effectively suing himself.

“This ‘renders this lawsuit non-adversarial, collusive, and jurisdictionally improper,'” she wrote in dismissing the suit.

In addition to her scathing rebuke of the lawsuit, she referred Alejandro Brito, Trump’s personal attorney in the case, to the Florida Bar for potential sanctions.

She also ordered that a copy of her ruling be sent to the State Bar of New York, of which Blanche is a member. He is currently facing multiple ethics complaints filed with the New York Attorney Grievance Committee over alleged misconduct and abuse of investigative powers during his tenure at the DOJ.

McCotter’s appeal marked the first time the DOJ appeared in the lawsuit.

In fact, in her order, Williams slammed the department for its explicit inaction in response to Trump’s suit, saying it served as clear evidence of the president’s double-dealing in the case.

“In abdicating its responsibility to zealously defend the interests of the United States, the Government entered into a ‘settlement’ that deviated from its litigation posture in similar actions, disregarded DOJ policies, and accomplished objectives beyond those authorized, as well as those specifically prohibited, by law,” the judge wrote.

Last week, a federal judge in Virginia ordered the federal government to reveal the identities of those who devised the fund.

In their suit, Trump and his sons demanded $10 billion in taxpayers’ dollars because the Treasury Department and the IRS failed to prevent a former contractor from accessing the president’s tax records and sharing them with the New York Times during his first presidential term.

Although the Trump Organization is headquartered in New York City, the Trumps filed their lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury in the Southern District of Florida, a jurisdiction with a reputation for being friendly to the president.