Justice Department to drop Anti-Weaponization Fund in compliance with court ruling

The Justice Department is dropping a $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund it created as part of a settlement with President Trump, although questions remain about whether that decision is temporary or permanent.

The decision was made after Republicans in Congress raised concerns about the politics of the arrangement and said they would not be able to pass their party-line immigration and law enforcement funding package without addressing the matter.

Mr. Trump met with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, on Monday to discuss the Anti-Weaponization Fund.

The Justice Department announced that it would no longer move forward with establishing the fund after a U.S. district court judge issued an injunction last week.

A Justice Department spokesperson told The Washington Times that the administration “will abide by the court’s ruling,” although it “disagrees strongly with the decision.”

The spokesperson said the Anti-Weaponization Fund would have been “open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted,” regardless of political affiliation, and was designed “to make up for the tremendous abuse, harm, and hate unfairly shown to so many people.”

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, a Clinton appointee, issued the injunction in a case that Andrew Floyd, as a federal prosecutor, brought in the Eastern District of Virginia seeking to “halt and set aside the creation and operation of this lawless fund.”

The injunction bars the Justice Department from taking further action on the Anti-Weaponization Fund while the case is pending. A hearing is scheduled for June 12.

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The Justice Department has until Friday to file its opposing views. The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question on whether the department plans to appeal the injunction or permanently drop its legal defense of the fund.

Lawmakers are likely to question acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about whether the fund is permanently defunct or merely on a temporary hold when he testifies before a House Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday.

Several Republican senators said they needed further clarity.

“If it means it’s completely pulled, then that would satisfy me,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican. “But I haven’t heard anybody say that is actually what is happening.”

Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, said he would also like the Justice Department to say it is “setting this whole thing aside.”

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“It’s pretty clear that the president has to say very explicitly that there’s not going to be a weaponization fund,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican.

Shortly before the Justice Department announced it would abide by the court injunction, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, told reporters that nixing the fund would finally clear the way for their party-line law enforcement and immigration funding package, which had stalled before the Memorial Day recess.

“The best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Mr. Thune said. He noted that he communicated that view to the president last week and discussed it further with White House aides over the weekend.

When contacted for comment, the White House referred to the Justice Department’s statement.

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Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said the fund may be “dead for now, but Democrats will not stop until it’s well and truly buried.”

“It can never see the light of day,” Mr. Schumer said.

Mr. Schumer said the first floor amendment he plans to offer to the Republicans’ funding package will be one “to ban the slush fund permanently and forever.”

“You don’t fix a corrupt slush fund by relying on the word of the most untrustworthy president we’ve ever had. You ban it,” he said. “This slush fund is rotten to the core. Democrats will make Republicans vote on it no matter what.”

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Mr. Thune said he hoped the shuttering of the fund would make most Republicans feel comfortable voting down Democrats’ amendments, but he acknowledged members may still have questions after the Justice Department’s statement.

“The way that the statement is worded, I think it’s clear they’re not proceeding with the fund,” he said. “Whether or not that’s sufficient to satisfy a number of our members is something we’re still sorting through.”

He had postponed a plan to bring the funding package to the floor before Memorial Day, as several Republican senators threatened to vote for Democrats’ amendments if the administration did not act on its own.

The funding package is moving through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process, meaning Republicans can pass it if at least 50 of their 53 members stick together. Vice President J.D. Vance could break any tie votes.

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Mr. Thune said he hoped to have a revised bill passed this week.

He confirmed that the measure would not include $1.5 billion in funding for the Justice Department or $1 billion for the Secret Service. Part of the Secret Service funding was earmarked for securing the new White House East Wing and presidential ballroom, which some Republicans opposed spending taxpayer dollars on.

He said the measure would stick to the Republicans’ initial, “targeted” goal of funding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through the remainder of Mr. Trump’s presidency. He called that “the best way to get the reconciliation bill moving across the finish line.”

A vote-a-rama in which senators can debate unlimited amendments to the package ahead of a final vote is expected Wednesday or Thursday.

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Lindsey McPherson

lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com

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