Days after a federal judge temporarily halted the President Donald Trump‘s controversial $1.776 billion fund to send taxpayer money to “victims of lawfare and weaponisation,” the administration agreed to comply with the court ruling.
In a statement, the Department of Justice said that while it “disagrees strongly with the decision on the Anti-Weaponisation Fund put forth by the United States District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia,” the department “will abide by the Court’s ruling.” However, the White House has not stated whether it will attempt to make changes to the fund or scrap it altogether.
The slush fund, which is set up to compensate Trump allies that he feels have been wronged by past administrations — particularly former President Joe Biden, has been paused for at least two weeks. The plan received backlash from Senate Republicans who objected to potential payouts to Jan. 6 rioters at the U.S. Capitol.
Amid bipartisan pushback, Republicans delayed a vote on a GOP package to fund ICE and the Border Patrol until June and threatened to work with Democrats to block the fund. Last month, senators reportedly railed against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over the fund during a closed-door meeting, which Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas described as one of “the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”
“Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said. “My guess is there’re probably 45 senators in the room, at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were pissed.”
Last month, hours before the fund’s announcement, Trump withdrew a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the 2019 leak of his tax filings. The week prior, ABC News and CNN had reported on internal White House discussions regarding the president’s desire to drop the lawsuit in exchange for the massive fund. According to CNN, the settlement would also kill any existing IRS audits on Trump, members of his family, or associated businesses.
The court’s ruling on the fund came in after a former Justice Department prosecutor and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit and claimed the fund was illegal and unconstitutional. “Instead, the Fund rewards and incentivises unlawful behaviour and facilitates an astounding abuse of taxpayer funds,” the suit states.
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