A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from establishing, funding or using a nearly $1.8 billion slush fund designed to secretly compensate President Donald Trump’s political allies he says were victimized by Democrats.
Leonie Brinkema
District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia ordered the pause May 29 and scheduled a hearing for June 12 to determine if the injunction against the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will remain in place as litigation against the government continues.
The temporary restraining order prohibits the administration “from taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which includes the transferring of money to the fund; the consideration of any claims submitted to the fund; and the disbursing of any funds from the fund.”
Andrew Floyd v. U.S. Department of Justice was filed May 22 after Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced he had created the fund as a condition of the settlement of the president’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over leaked tax documents.
In return for dismissing the litigation, Trump agreed to drop his demand for $10 billion in damages in return for a secretive account from which to pay January 6 insurrectionists and other ideological allies who have been investigated, indicted or sued for civil and criminal offenses. Only those targeted by Democrats would be eligible.
Democracy Forward filed the opposing action in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of Andrew Floyd, a former U.S. attorney and January 6 prosecutor fired by the administration, and Jonathan Caravello, a California professor arrested and later acquitted of assaulting federal agents protesting an immigration raid. Plaintiffs also include the City of New Haven, Conn., the National Abortion Federation and Common Cause.
In the lawsuit, they claim the fund as planned is unconstitutional because it exceeds executive branch authority, bypasses congressional and judicial oversight and would use taxpayer dollars to pay — and thus embolden — anti-democracy and anti-abortion activists.
Justin Elicker
“President Trump’s so-called ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is a transparent attempt to use hard-earned taxpayer dollars as a slush fund to support and reward his political allies, supporters and, unconscionably, January 6 insurrectionists,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said. “New Haveners want their federal taxpayer dollars to be used for critical government functions and services like public safety, infrastructure, Medicare and Social Security — not to advance President Trump’s personal political interests.”
Brittany Fonteno
Tax revenues should not be used to reward people who target health care clinics, added Brittany Fonteno, president of the National Abortion Federation. “The court should stop this fund before money begins flowing to anti-abortion extremists and deepening the threats providers and patients already face.”
Democracy Forward asked the court May 28 for an emergency order halting the fund. “It notes that the Trump-Vance administration has refused to disclose when payouts will begin, creating urgent and irreparable harm because once taxpayer money is distributed through the fund, it may be impossible to recover, and the constitutional harms will already have occurred,” the group said.
The subsequent restraining order will enable the court to fully review the administration’s slush fund scheme, added Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman. “This is a victory for transparency, the rule of law and the American people. No administration has the authority to spend public money through a political rewards program that Congress never authorized.”
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