WASHINGTON — A federal judge denied a request to temporarily halt the Trump administration’s proposed “anti-weaponization” fund but warned the Justice Department not to misrepresent the status of the $1.8 billion fund, which acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress is not moving forward.
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“Don’t play possum with this court,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon warned a Justice Department attorney in court Wednesday afternoon after he rejected the temporary restraining order request from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, one of several groups seeking to block the fund.
In addition to Blanche’s remarks to lawmakers about the status of the fund, the Justice Department said in a court filing last week that the initiative is “not going forward.”
President Donald Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday that he loved the idea of the “anti-weaponization” fund and that if it were up to him, he would pay purported victims of “weaponization” the “kind of money that they deserve.”
The fund stemmed from an agreement between Trump’s private attorneys and the Trump administration over a $10 billion suit filed by Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization over the leak of Trump’s federal tax returns years ago, which resulted in a five-year prison sentence for a former IRS contractor.
Another federal judge has temporarily blocked the Justice Department from taking any action on the fund after several people filed a lawsuit, including a top Jan. 6 prosecutor who was fired by the Justice Department.
On Wednesday, Leon asked Justice Department official Andrew Block during the hearing why the Justice Department did not rescind the order establishing the fund rather than force the court and the public to rely on Blanche’s remarks to lawmakers.
“I don’t know,” Block replied, but he noted that last week’s court filing that said the fund was not moving forward had Block’s name on it along with that of Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward.
Earlier in the hearing, Leon remarked upon the remarkable nature of the case and the settlement between Trump and his administration.
“This whole case is highly unusual, to say the least,” Leon said.
