(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Trump administration was accused Monday of backing away from its highly touted $1.776 billion fund for victims of government weaponization after a federal judge blocked the DOJ from moving forward with the program.
The accusations stemmed from a DOJ statement posted on X in which the department said it would “abide by the Court’s ruling.” The restrained response contrasted with the administration’s previous forceful reactions to decisions issued by left-wing judges.
Some social media users and legacy media outlets interpreted that statement as a suggestion that the DOJ was abandoning the anti-weaponization fund completely, though the department did not explicitly say so. Axios also reported that the Trump administration will “drop” the initiative.
Scoop: Trump plans to drop "weaponization" fund https://t.co/0xzHZAD9aN
— Axios (@axios) June 1, 2026
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the fund on May 18, the same day Trump voluntarily withdrew his $10 billion civil lawsuit against the IRS. Trump had sued the agency before taking office in 2025, directly accusing the IRS of failing to prevent the leak of his confidential tax returns to the legacy media.
However, before the settlement could move forward, U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams, an Obama appointee, revived the case on May 29 after a group of little-known former federal judges filed a petition urging her to scrutinize the settlement.
“The Court was deceived,” the former judges argued in an amici curiae filing. Without citing definitive evidence, they claimed the settlement was negotiated outside the court process and suggested the judge may not have been properly informed.
Williams’s extraordinary decision to reopen the matter came even after the underlying civil lawsuit had already been voluntarily dismissed.
In her order, Williams cited the former judges’ filing and directed attorneys for both Trump and the IRS to respond by June 12.
Separately, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, a Clinton appointee, temporarily blocked the DOJ from moving forward with the fund in a lawsuit brought by a former prosecutor who claimed he was fired because of his role in the aggressive prosecution of Jan. 6 defendants.
Brinkema’s order specifically prohibited the DOJ “from taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which includes the transferring of money to the Fund; the consideration of any claims submitted to the Fund; and the disbursing of any funds from the Fund.”
