A federal judge on June 12 extended her block of the Trump administration’s Anti-Weaponization Fund.
Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued a new order stating that the fund will remain blocked for the time being.
The judge gave the parties a week to negotiate an agreement for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to file a sworn declaration that the Trump administration will not revive the fund.
Government attorneys have argued that the DOJ’s announcement rendered plaintiffs’ lawsuits challenging the fund moot, or legally irrelevant.
However, the judge, plaintiffs, and some in Congress are not satisfied by Blanche’s promise.
Brinkema said the government’s “mootness argument ... doesn’t go anywhere.”
She barred officials from establishing rules or procedures governing the fund, destroying any documents related to it, or “reconstituting” the fund under a different name.
The judge also said that if the defendants have transferred any money to an account for the fund, “they shall immediately reverse that transfer.”
The Anti-Weaponization Fund was created as part of a settlement of a lawsuit that President Donald Trump filed against the IRS over alleged leaks of his tax returns. The settlement called for the federal government to pay out nearly $1.8 billion to compensate alleged victims of the weaponization of law enforcement.
As a result of the settlement, Blanche said on May 19 that the IRS would no longer pursue claims against Trump, members of his family, or his businesses over allegedly unpaid taxes.
The plan for the fund met opposition in Congress from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Some expressed concerns that those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, security breach at the U.S. Capitol could receive payouts from it.
On May 29, Brinkema issued an order temporarily blocking the federal government’s moves to establish the fund. At that time, she said the order was needed to make sure that no funds are “irreversibly disbursed” before litigation over the fund has an opportunity to play out.
He ended the hearing by providing what he called a “fair warning” to the Trump administration, telling officials, “Don’t play possum with this court.”
Williams said she wanted to probe “grievous allegations” that the settlement was “premised on deception.”
Williams said that 35 former federal judges filed a motion asking the court to reopen the case. Some of those who support the motion “submit that the settlement ‘is a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the Court.’”
In other words, the former judges alleged that the lawsuit was collusive, meaning that Trump and the IRS are accused of working together for a disposition of the case favorable to Trump instead of properly litigating it in the usual adversarial setting of a court.
Williams noted that a judicial rule known as Rule 11 allows the court to investigate serious misconduct and determine “whether an attorney has abused the judicial process.”
“A party’s decision to file a frivolous lawsuit for the sole purpose of forcing a settlement may qualify as such an improper purpose,” she wrote in her order.
The judge directed Trump’s attorneys to answer questions about any possible deception by June 12.
