Acting AG Blanche Says DOJ Will Drop Trump’s $1.8 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund After Court Fight
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed that the Justice Department is backing away from President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, a program designed to compensate Americans who say they were targeted by politically motivated government action.
Blanche made the announcement during testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, shortly after a federal judge temporarily blocked the fund from moving forward.
“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche said.
The statement marked a clear shift for the Justice Department, which had previously defended the fund as a vehicle for restitution after years of public concern over federal agencies being used as political weapons.
Still, Blanche made clear that the underlying principle behind the effort remains important to President Trump and his administration.
“The reasons for the fund are something that President Trump has talked about for a long time, which is the fact that there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them. The reasons for the fund, I think, remain as important as they were before, but, we are not moving forward with the fund.”
A hearing that had been scheduled for June 12 to examine the fund’s legal standing will no longer move ahead.
The Justice Department first introduced the proposal in mid-May, presenting it as a way to provide restitution to victims of lawfare and government abuse, regardless of political affiliation. The program was connected to a settlement between the Trump administration and the IRS over the disclosure of President Trump’s tax returns.
Rather than issuing direct compensation, the settlement called for the creation of a $1.776 billion fund.
Under the original plan, a five-member board appointed by Blanche would have overseen how the money was distributed. The funding would have come from the Judgment Fund, which is traditionally used to pay court judgments and settlements against the federal government.
Opponents quickly attacked the proposal, claiming it amounted to a political “slush fund” that could benefit President Trump and his allies. Blanche told lawmakers that no work had begun to establish the fund while the legal challenges were still pending.
The fund became the target of three separate lawsuits. The most prominent challenge was brought by Democracy Forward, which argued that the administration lacked authority to use the Judgment Fund to create a new compensation program without approval from Congress.
That legal fight led U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to issue a temporary injunction on May 29. Brinkema said the plaintiffs had raised serious questions about whether the executive branch had the power to create and finance the program on its own.
She also expressed concern that taxpayer money could be distributed before the court had a chance to fully review the fund’s legality.
The Justice Department has not yet said whether it will formally dissolve the fund, withdraw its filings, or move to dismiss the remaining lawsuits.
For conservatives, the move is a setback in the broader fight to hold federal agencies accountable for political targeting. But Blanche’s comments also made clear that the Trump administration is not abandoning the larger argument: that Americans who were mistreated by a politicized government deserve recognition, accountability, and a serious path toward justice.