The Justice Department said it will comply with a federal court ruling preventing the Trump administration from moving forward with a $1.77 billion fund intended to compensate people who said they were targeted by political weaponization.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Justice Department said Monday it will abandon a $1.77 billion anti-weaponization fund after a federal judge in Virginia ruled that the department could not proceed with the program.
The fund had been created after President Donald Trump agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Trump had sued the agency in January alongside Eric Trump, Don Jr. and the Trump Organization after former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn leaked the returns.
Under the settlement arrangement, Trump dropped the lawsuit in exchange for the creation of a taxpayer-funded fund intended to compensate people who said they were unfairly targeted or persecuted under the Biden administration.
The Justice Department said it disagreed with the court’s decision but would follow the ruling.
“The Department of Justice disagrees strongly with the decision on the Anti-Weaponization Fund put forth by the United States District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia, wherein the Court stated that, under no circumstances, may the Department of Justice proceed with the Anti-Weaponization Fund recently established in order to make up for the tremendous abuse, harm, and hate unfairly shown to so many people. This Fund was open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise. The Department will abide by the Court’s ruling,” the DOJ said.
The ruling followed criticism from former judges who had asked a federal court to examine whether the Trump administration defrauded the court through the settlement structure. The fund also triggered political resistance as lawmakers debated federal spending and Senate leaders weighed funding disputes.
Reports Monday said the administration had decided not to continue pursuing the fund. According to Axios, two senior administration officials said the White House planned to drop the controversial program.
“The Trump administration plans to drop its controversial $1.8 billion ‘weaponization’ fund the president sought to compensate alleged victims of prosecutorial conduct under his predecessor, two senior administration officials told Axios.
“‘It’s dead for now,’ one of the sources said.”
NBC also reported that Trump was dropping the fund amid a Senate fight over funding. Senate Majority Leader John Thune had been pressuring Trump to abandon the fund as lawmakers worked through broader funding negotiations.
The development ends, at least for now, a proposal that had drawn scrutiny from both parties and from members of the judiciary over how the money would be distributed and whether the settlement could improperly benefit Trump allies.
The legal fight began with the leak of Trump’s tax records, which led to Littlejohn’s guilty plea. Trump sought $10 billion in damages from the IRS before agreeing to the settlement that created the anti-weaponization fund.
The Justice Department’s decision to comply with the court order means the fund will not move forward under the judge’s ruling, despite the department’s stated disagreement with the decision.
An X post highlighted the DOJ statement and the administration’s decision.
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