Judge temporarily blocks payouts from Trump's $1.776 billion 'anti-weaponization' settlement fund

FILE - An American flag flies outside the Department of Justice in Washington, March 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from processing or paying any claims through a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for the Republican president's allies who believe they were victims of a weaponized government.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, also barred the government from moving forward with the fund’s creation or operating it while litigation is pending to challenge it.

The judge, who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend the order blocking payouts from an “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” The government created the fund to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

The White House declined to comment on the judge's ruling and referred all questions to the Justice Department, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The judge gave the government another week to respond in writing to the plaintiffs' arguments in favor of freezing the fund's creation.

The fund has generated a fierce backlash since it was announced last week, with even Republicans pressing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over the eligibility considerations and the possibility that even violent rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, would be free to seek compensation.

The Justice Department hasn’t formed the five-member commission that will decide on payout criteria, so there has been no money paid out yet or claims accepted.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward are seeking a court order halting the fund’s implementation and preventing the Trump administration from disbursing any payouts from it. The federal suit claims there is no legal basis or accountability behind the fund.

“President Trump and his allies have long accused Democrats of using the government and the legal system as political weapons,” plaintiffs' lawyers wrote. “In doing so, the (Trump) administration fails to acknowledge the unprecedented campaign of targeting individuals and entities for retribution on personal and ideological grounds that it has carried out.”