Judge Orders Trump Admin to Name Architects of $1.8B Anti-Weaponization Fund

A federal judge in Virginia has ordered the Trump administration to identify the officials who designed the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, the compensation program created for Americans who were targeted by a weaponized federal government. Magistrate Judge Ivan D. Davis of the Eastern District of Virginia issued the discovery order Friday in a lawsuit filed by a left-wing nonprofit seeking to block the fund before it could help anyone. Attorney General Todd Blanche has already said the program is dead, yet the court fight over it is far from over.

The order requires the government to disclose the names of the people who came up with the fund's structure. It grants part of a motion from the plaintiffs to compel discovery from the federal government, moving the case into a new and more aggressive phase.

Left-Wing Group Pushes to Bury the Fund

The lawsuit was brought by Democracy Forward on behalf of a fired January 6 prosecutor, a California college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents during a protest against an immigration raid, and a group of career IRS workers. The plaintiffs argue the fund amounts to a taxpayer-backed payout scheme that could reward people convicted in connection with the January 6 Capitol protest, including those later pardoned by President Donald Trump.

"Today's order granting discovery is a significant step in getting to the bottom of the slush fund," said Aman George, senior counsel at Democracy Forward. "We will continue to meet the government in court until our investigation is complete and the slush fund is permanently halted."

A Fund for Victims of Weaponized Government

The proposed fund was designed to set aside roughly $1.8 billion as compensation for people who "suffered weaponization and lawfare" under the Biden administration's Department of Justice. Blanche, who proposed the fund before his confirmation as attorney general, has said the program was meant to repair the damage done to Americans who were targeted by federal prosecutors for political reasons.

Trump has defended the concept in blunt terms. "I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused," he said at a Cabinet meeting this summer. The president has long argued that federal law enforcement was turned into a political weapon under his predecessor, leaving ordinary Americans financially and professionally wrecked by investigations that never should have happened.

The fund grew out of a settlement in Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, and the same agreement shielded the president and his family from future IRS audits. The arrangement drew bipartisan criticism in Washington. Republican senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined Democrats in opposing the fund, and the controversy put Blanche's confirmation on the line.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the fund in May shortly after the first lawsuit was filed. In July, another judge ruled that the parties to the underlying IRS settlement had never been in genuine conflict. Through it all, the fund never disbursed a single dollar.

A Dead Fund With a Live Question

Blanche ultimately rescinded the program in writing, saying on Fox News Sunday: "The fund is dead or whatever word you want to use. It never started. So, it's not as if the fund is coming back."

But the rescission document did not include the signatories of the original agreement, a gap critics say leaves the door open for the fund and its related IRS protections to be revived later. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey has warned that the agreement guarantees "nothing" and that the payout pot could still move forward.

Trump has not ruled out other ways to help people he believes were wronged by the justice system. "It is dead, but you know, I wish it weren't," he said of the fund this summer.

What to Watch Next

Friday's order means the government must now produce records and name the officials involved in structuring the fund. Democracy Forward has vowed to keep litigating until the program is permanently shut down. The Justice Department declined to comment on the order.

The practical stakes are limited for now: Blanche says the fund never started and will not return in its current form. But the issue is not going away. January 6 defendants are still seeking payouts, and the president has made clear he believes Americans targeted by the weaponized state deserve justice. The fight over how, or whether, those victims are compensated is unlikely to end with a single court order.