Trump Abandons $1.8B 'Anti-Weaponization' Fund

The Trump administration has abandoned its $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund following bipartisan backlash and legal challenges, according to multiple reports. The fund was created as part of a settlement between President Donald Trump's Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to resolve a lawsuit over the alleged mishandling of his tax records.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified before the House Appropriations Committee that 'We are not moving forward with the fund. Period,' according to CBS News, PBS, and HuffPost. Republicans had opposed the fund over fears it would provide monetary compensation to January 6 Capitol rioters who assaulted police.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune held hostage a bill Trump wanted to fund immigration enforcement, stating he would not advance the legislation until Republicans received assurances that the fund would not be used to pay the President's allies. 'This has become a distraction,' another administration official said, as reported by The Guardian and Al Jazeera. A federal judge last Friday blocked the Justice Department from distributing the funds while a lawsuit challenging the arrangement plays out in a Virginia court.

Following news of the fund's demise, the DOJ released a statement saying it will comply with the court order and halt work on the weaponization fund. However, Politico reporter Kyle Cheney pushed back on the DOJ claim that the fund had been killed, noting that the judge had only ordered a two-week pause to give the court time to work through the legal issues.

Democrats plan to launch a separate 'coordinated effort to kill the slush fund' before Republicans attempt to pass immigration enforcement funding. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stated that Democrats would 'be ready with amendments to shut the fund down' if Republicans again seek to use budget reconciliation to push through a package funding federal immigration agencies, according to Time and The Guardian.

There appears to be significant finger-pointing over the fund's creation, with some administration officials disagreeing over whether White House staff were properly informed about it. According to Axios, one source said Trump's inner circle was included in discussions between the President's legal team and the DOJ, which was responsible for creating the fund. 'That's not true,' a separate senior official also told Axios. 'The West Wing got blindsided.' The $1.776 billion fund was created by the DOJ earlier this month with the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants.

A federal judge has reopened Donald Trump’s $10bn case against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after receiving a third-party motion asserting that the settlement, which lacks detail, 'is a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the court', as reported by The Guardian and Reuters. The ruling was issued by Miami judge Kathleen Williams. Trump dropped the lawsuit last week and Todd Blanche announced that, in exchange, the US was ‘forever barred’ from auditing the tax returns of Trump family members.

A bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges urged Williams to look more closely at the settlement, according to CBS News and CNBC. The ex-judges wrote in a court filing that 'The Court was deceived' and raised questions about the parties' candor toward the Court. The justice department unveiled a controversial $1.8bn fund to compensate people who claim they are victims of the federal government.