Judge temporarily halts Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘weaponization’ slush fund

A federal judge Friday temporarily barred the Department of Justice (DOJ) from moving forward with a massive $1.8 billion slush fund for President Donald Trump’s allies.

Trump has claimed that the fund, which the DOJ abruptly created to resolve a bizarre lawsuit he filed against his own administration, will be used to compensate people who he alleges were victims of the “weaponization” of government during the Biden administration.

However, opponents — including some congressional Republicans — have criticized the fund as a corrupt attempt to funnel taxpayer funds to Trump’s allies and supporters, including people who attempted to overturn the 2020 election or attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, ruled that the DOJ could not begin setting up, funding or distributing payments from the fund while litigation is pending.

The judge said the order was necessary to “ensure that no funds are irreversibly disbursed from the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’” as multiple lawsuits proceed.

Brinkema’s order came in a lawsuit filed by a group of people and entities who alleged they had been victims of governmental weaponization by the Trump administration but will not be eligible for payments from the fund because the government sees them as ideological or political opponents.

The group, which is being represented by Democracy Forward*, includes Andrew Floyd, a former DOJ official who prosecuted Jan. 6 defendants, and the city of New Haven, Connecticut, which the DOJ recently sued over its immigration-related law enforcement policies.

“None of these individuals or entities can make a claim for monetary payment, or even for an apology, from the Anti-Weaponization Fund,” the group’s lawsuit states. “Instead, the Fund rewards and incentivizes unlawful behavior and facilitates an astounding abuse of taxpayer funds.”

The DOJ announced the creation of the fund last week as part of a settlement in Trump and his two eldest sons’ $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the unauthorized leak of the president’s tax records during his first term.

The department said that the fund, which officially totals $1.776 billion, will be overseen by a five-member commission, though the settlement did not require that actions by, or payments from, the commission be made public.

As part of the settlement, the IRS was also permanently barred from auditing Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization — essentially exempting them from tax law.

The Trump administration has faced significant bipartisan backlash since the slush fund was unveiled. In protest of the settlement, Senate Republicans refused to pass an immigration-related funding bill last week.

So far, at least three other lawsuits are challenging the fund, including one from two former Capitol Police officers who defended lawmakers on Jan. 6. 

In their complaint, the officers allege that the fund will encourage political violence by compensating “the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence ​in [Trump’s] name.”

Another suit filed by the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics referred to the fund as “a jaw-dropping act of presidential corruption.”

*Democracy Docket Founder Marc Elias is the chair of the Democracy Forward board.

This story has been updated with new details throughout.