The judge responded to concerns that the DOJ could say one thing and then do another.
A judge issued a stern warning to Donald Trump’s Department of Justice not to go back on its word that the president’s Jan. 6 slush fund was dead on arrival.that would make secret payments to Capitol rioters and other Trump allies who say they were wrongly prosecuted by the Biden administration, without any legal or congressional oversight.arising from a $10 billion lawsuit Trump brought against the Internal Revenue Service over tax returns leaked to the press by an independent contractor.
Acting attorney general Todd Blanche refused to rule out the possibility of the $1.8 billion"anti-weaponization fund" being used to pay Jan. 6, 2021, rioters convicted of assaulting Capitol police officers. During a hearing in Washington, D.C.
, on Wednesday, a federal judge warned the DOJ not to try to revive the moribund fund,The DOJ’s so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was the subject of at least five federal lawsuits, including one brought by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington . On Wednesday, Leon denied CREW’s request for a temporary restraining order against the fund, saying the case appeared moot because acting attorney general Todd Blanche had testified before Congress last week that the fund had been abandoned, which DOJ officials have since repeated in court filings, according to the Post.
CREW’s attorneys, however, argued that the DOJ still hadn’t rescinded Blanche’s May 18 memo establishing the fund, and Trump himself had refused to back Blanche’s congressional testimony that the fund had been scrapped. The plaintiffs in a separate case in Virginia made a similar argument on Wednesday, urging the court not to take the DOJ at its word because the department’s position could be temporary or unreliable.
Leon said he would rule at a later date on CREW’s request for a preliminary injunction against the fund. Watchdog groups have asked the courts not to take acting attorney general Todd Blanche at this word that the president's slush fund has been permanently abandoned. In the meantime, he pointed out that while Trump can make statements about the fund for political benefit, DOJ lawyers could face sanctions for making misrepresentations in court filings.
The DOJ’s lawyers assured the court, “Our briefs are assurances in writing. And those submissions are in court documents,” the Post reported. Separately, the judge in the Virginia case, Leonie Brinkema, ordered the government not to proceed with the fund until at least Friday, when she’s scheduled to hold a hearing. President Trump has dropped his slush fund, but he kept a part of his dubious settlement agreement shielding himself and his sons—including Don Jr., pictured here—from tax audits.
Williams had questioned whether there was a valid dispute between Trump and the IRS, given that the president oversees the Treasury Department, and asked the parties to submit briefs on whether a real case or controversy existed. Rather than answer the court’s questions, Trump dropped the suit and—without informing the court of a settlement—struck a deal with his own DOJ.
The move came after Trump himself said at a rally in December that he was in a “strange position” suing his own IRS,
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