Judge Pauses Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund”

by Thomas Breen

A federal judge has sided with New Haven and has ordered the Trump administration to hold off, for now, on creating a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

U.S. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema handed down that two-page order Friday in the case Andrew Floyd v. Department of Justice.

The City of New Haven is one of only a handful of plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The lawsuit focuses on the Trump administration’s efforts to create a new $1.776 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were targeted by the government. It arose from a settlement between President Donald Trump and the IRS. The plaintiffs in this case, including the City of New Haven, have lambasted the federal effort as a “slush fund” designed to reward Trump’s allies while discriminating against Democrats and others who accuse Republicans of wrongdoing.

In her order Friday, Brinkema enjoined the Trump administration “from taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which includes transferring money to the Fund; the consideration of any claims submitted to the Fund; and the disbursing of any funds from the Fund.”

Mayor Justin Elicker celebrated that news in a Friday email press release. “The court’s temporary injunction is a victory for taxpayers in New Haven and nationwide — and it is also a victory for the rule of law,” Elicker is quoted as saying in the press release. “President Trump’s so-called ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is a transparent attempt to use hard-earned taxpayer dollars as a slush fund to support and reward his political allies, supporters and, unconscionably, January 6th insurrectionists. New Haveners want their federal taxpayer dollars to be used for critical government functions and services like public safety, infrastructure, Medicare and Social Security – not to advance President Trump’s personal political interests.”