WASHINGTON, D.C. – A federal judge is temporarily blocking the President’s so-called “anti-weaponization fund”. It’s a nearly $1.8- billion fund which aims to provide monetary relief for people the administration deems were targeted by “weaponization and lawfare” under Democratic administrations.
In court documents released Friday, a judge with the Eastern District of Virginia has ordered the Department of Justice to halt the administration from any further action with their Anti-Weaponization Fund. The Fund was created as a way to pay people the administration deems were harmed by the federal government. The order temporarily stops the government from establishing the fund or processing disbursements while litigation is pending to challenge the legality of it.
The DOJ spokesperson sent us this statement following the judge’s order: “The Department remains extremely confident in the legality of the Anti-Weaponization Fund which is supported by ample precedent, including Obama-era settlements. We will not allow the policy preferences of judges to interfere with our efforts to provide restitution to victims of lawfare.”
So far, no money has been paid out yet. The President has praised the fund as a source of relief for people they believe were targeted by the government.
“This is reimbursing people that were horribly treated, horribly treated,” said the President earlier this month. “This is anti-weaponization, they’ve been weaponized. In some cases, they’ve been imprisoned wrongly.”
A slew of the President’s allies, including people convicted of crimes during the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, announced they will apply for the fund, but the fund has received sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle.
“Trump’s funneling nearly $2 -billion in taxpayer dollars into a slush fund for his friends, his far-right loyalists, and January 6th insurrectionists,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D- NY) at a press conference mid-May.
Pennsylvania Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R- PA) is co-sponsoring legislation to prohibit federal funds from being used to pay any claims submitted to the DOJ fund.
“We got to unpack exactly what it is, what the source of the funding is, in order to stop it, and/or reverse it,” Rep. Fitzpatrick said to reporters mid-May.
The administration is defending the fund.
“So many lives destroyed, so many livelihoods ruined, so many people who were deprived of their fundamental rights and freedoms as American citizens and this settlement is just a small measure of the justice that they are owed,” said Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff at a press gathering md-May.
