{"id":223319,"date":"2026-09-07T00:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T00:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/judge-orders-trump-administration-to-reveal-who-set-up-1-8bn-anti-weaponization-fund-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T00:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T00:11:18","slug":"judge-orders-trump-administration-to-reveal-who-set-up-1-8bn-anti-weaponization-fund-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/judge-orders-trump-administration-to-reveal-who-set-up-1-8bn-anti-weaponization-fund-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders Trump administration to reveal who set up $1.8bn \u2018anti-weaponization fund\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge issues order as part of discovery process in lawsuit brought by non-profit into now defunct compensation fund
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration<\/a> to reveal who set up the structure of a controversial $1.8bn \u201canti-weaponization fund\u201d to recompense victims of so-called political lawfare that was reportedly dropped by the justice department last month.
Ivan Davis, the US magistrate judge for the eastern district of Virginia, issued the order<\/a> compelling discovery materials from the government as part of a lawsuit <\/a>brought by the Democracy Forward non-profit on behalf of plaintiffs including a fired prosecutor and a college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents at a protest against an immigration raid in California<\/a>.
\u201cToday\u2019s order granting discovery is a significant step in getting to the bottom of the slush fund,\u201d said Aman George, senior counsel at the non-profit. \u201cWe will continue to meet the government in court until our investigation is complete and the slush fund is permanently halted.\u201d
Last month, Todd Blanche<\/a> said the fund he proposed before he was confirmed \u201cis dead\u201d. The US attorney general told Fox News Sunday: \u201cThe fund is dead or whatever word you want to use. It never started. So, it\u2019s not as if the fund is coming back.\u201d
Democrats maintain that the proposed fund would have been used to compensate prosecuted and since-pardoned January 6 rioters, among others. Blanche said that Trump \u201cbelieves the justice department was weaponized against a lot of Americans\u201d under the Biden administration, adding: \u201cIt really hurt them financially.\u201d
The proposed compensation scheme was set up as part of the settlement Trump reached with the IRS regarding a lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns. The agreement shielded the president and his family from future tax audits.
In July, another federal judge found that the parties had never truly been in conflict and Trump\u2019s $10bn lawsuit against the IRS had only ever been a pretense for setting up the fund.
\u201cThere was never adverseness between the parties; there was never a case or controversy; and there was never a question as to who would prevail,\u201d the US district judge Kathleen Williams said in a ruling, adding that the lawsuit had been brought \u201cfor an improper purpose \u2013 to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a \u2018settlement\u2019 that had no viable basis in law or fact\u201d.
The proposed fund drew bipartisan criticism in Washington, including opposition from two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and it put Blanche\u2019s confirmation for attorney general at risk.
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Critics of the program have noted that the document demanded by lawmakers did not include signatories to the initial agreement, suggesting that it could be revived. Blanche has said that \u201cthere were never commissioners\u201d in charge of the \u201cpayout pot\u201d. But Senate Democrat Cory Booker said the agreement guaranteed \u201cnothing \u2026 no guarantees whatsoever that this slush fund still can\u2019t go forward\u201d.
Trump has rued the abandonment of the fund and has not ruled out another avenue to compensation. \u201cIt is dead, but you know, I wish it weren\u2019t,\u201d he said of the fund at a cabinet meeting in July. \u201cTo be honest with you, I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused.\u201d
The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods:
The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS<\/a>\/Android<\/a>) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019.
Our guide at theguardian.com\/tips<\/a> lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each. <\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge issues order as part of discovery process in lawsuit brought by non-profit into now defunct compensation fundA federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reveal who set up the structure of a controversial $1.8bn \u201canti-weaponization fund\u201d to recompense victims of so-called political lawfare that was reportedly dropped by the justice department last month.Ivan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}