A federal decide in Virginia on Friday briefly blocked the Division of Justice from taking any additional motion to create, fund, or spend cash from its so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund as a lawsuit difficult it proceeds.
The DOJ mentioned earlier this month that it was creating the $1.8 billion fund as a part of a settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit by President Donald Trump in opposition to the Inner Income Service for the leak of his tax information by an IRS worker.
The fund is supposed to compensate individuals who allege they have been the victims of prosecutorial overreach by the DOJ beneath the Biden administration. Critics have referred to as it a “slush fund” for Trump allies, together with individuals who participated within the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
US President Donald Trump appears on throughout a press convention in regards to the battle in Iran within the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White Home on April 6, 2026, in Washington, DC.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Photos
Decide Leonie Brinkema, in her order on Friday, enjoined the DOJ from “taking any additional motion pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which incorporates the transferring of cash to the Fund; the consideration of any claims submitted to the Fund; and the disbursing of any funds from the Fund.”
The order got here a day after plaintiffs within the case in U.S. District Court docket in Alexandria requested Brinkema for a short lived restraining order in opposition to the fund, or to difficulty a preliminary injunction in opposition to it and set a schedule for expedited authorized briefing on whether or not the fund ought to be allowed to function because the lawsuit in opposition to it proceeds.
Brinkema, in selecting the second choice, informed the Trump administration to file its opposition to the plaintiffs’ request by June 5.
She set a listening to on the query of whether or not to keep up a block on the fund for June 12.
The decide, in a pointed footnote in her order, wrote, “It is crucial that the established order be maintained till plaintiffs’ pending Movement has been resolved.”
Brinkema mentioned that was “particularly” necessary as a result of the plaintiffs had alleged that DOJ’s attorneys have been ” ‘unable … to offer assurances of how lengthy [the] establishment would final’ and declined plaintiffs’ request that the federal government decide to not transferring cash to the Fund or processing or paying claims till not less than June 19 to permit for much less compressed briefing on this case.”
A lot of Trump allies have already mentioned they need compensation from the fund.
The swimsuit is one in every of three federal instances difficult the DOJ’s fund.
The DOJ didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for touch upon Brinkema’s order.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this text.
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