The Justice Department failed to explain why it simply couldn’t put in writing that the slush fund is dead.
Brandi Buchman at HuffPost:
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge slapped a preliminary injunction on President Donald Trump’s so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” for Jan. 6 rioters on Friday. “The bottom line is I don’t have the type of uncontestable evidence to show that [attempting to create the fund] would not be repeated,” Judge Leonie Brinkema said. “And there is clear evidence, in terms of statements by the acting attorney general and multiple statements by the president who has talked about how important it is that this fund should go forward.”
Justice Department attorney Andrew Block was unable to explain why the government simply could not put in writing that there were no plans to accept claims or conduct payouts. “I don’t know, your honor. I have not had the ability to speak to the attorney general and ask that question,” Block said. Brinkema gave the government one week to provide a declaration, signed under penalty of perjury by both acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, stating there would be no fund going forward.
Andrew Floyd, a former Justice Department prosecutor who also served as deputy chief for the Capitol Siege division investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, filed the lawsuit in May. (Floyd was fired by former Attorney General Pam Bondi amid a rash of other Jan. 6 prosecutor firings last year.) Shortly thereafter, Brinkema ordered the government to temporarily stop plans to create or operate the fund born from Trump’s self-serving settlement with the IRS. In the wake of that ruling, both Blanche and other lawyers for the Justice Department have represented that the fund was “not going forward,” but ahead of the hearing on Friday, Floyd’s lawyer, Joel McElvain, said there’s no consistency between what is said publicly and what is said in court.
“Defendants have failed to substantiate that position with any competent evidence, despite repeated requests from plaintiffs, much less evidence of a written modification of the Trump v. IRS Agreement that created the Fund or a rescission of the Acting Attorney General’s order funding it,” McElvain wrote. The Justice Department is reportedly quietly looking for ways to keep the gravy train flowing to people who feel they have been victimized by Democrats or the Biden administration. And even without a designated “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” legal experts told HuffPost, there are easy ways payouts could be accomplished anyway.
Judge Leonie Brinkema put the block on Donald Trump’s reparations plan (aka the “Anti-Weaponization Fund”) for Capitol Insurrectionists.
