On Friday, a federal judge in Virginia temporarily blocked the Justice Department from taking further action to create or spend money from the so-called anti-weaponization fund, one of three lawsuits challenging the proceeds.
Judge Leonie Brinkema said she will hold a hearing June 12 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on whether to uphold the Justice Department’s injunction against the $1.8 billion fund.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier this month that the fund would be created as part of President Donald Trump’s settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over leaks of tax records by IRS employees. Branch is a former criminal defense attorney for President Trump.
Hours after Mr. Brynma’s order, the judge overseeing the lawsuit challenging the fund in Washington, D.C., at the request of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a Washington advocacy group, scheduled a hearing in federal court for Wednesday to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the Justice Department from operating the fund while the lawsuit proceeds.
The fund is intended to compensate people who say they were victims of prosecutorial overreach by the Justice Department under the Biden administration, which they and President Trump have called “legal action.”
Critics have called it a “slush fund” for Trump’s allies, including those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Andrew Floyd, one of the plaintiffs in the case and a former federal prosecutor who asked Brinkama on Thursday for an injunction and an expedited explanation of the funds, said he was fired last year for his work prosecuting the defendants on Jan. 6.
U.S. President Donald Trump watches a press conference on the Iran conflict in the James S. Brady Press Conference Room at the White House on April 6, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
The other plaintiffs are Jonathan Caravello, a university professor who claimed he was groundlessly arrested while protesting immigration raids in California in 2025, and the city of New Haven, which the Trump administration sued for acting as a so-called sanctuary city for immigrants.
In his order, Brinkema prohibited the Department of Justice from “taking any further action based on the establishment or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, including transferring funds to the Fund, considering claims submitted to the Fund, or disbursing funds from the Fund.”
“It is important to maintain the status quo until Plaintiffs’ pending claims are resolved,” Brinkema wrote in a sharp footnote to the order.
Brinkema said the case is “particularly” important because the plaintiffs argued that Justice Department lawyers “cannot provide guarantees as to how long the current situation will last” and denied the plaintiffs’ request to commit to not transferring money to the fund or processing or disbursing claims until at least June 19 to avoid a more condensed version of the case.
Many of Mr. Trump’s supporters have already said they are seeking compensation from the fund.
“The Department remains extremely confident in the legality of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which is supported by a wealth of precedent, including Obama-era settlements,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.
“We will not allow a judge’s policy preferences to impede our efforts to provide reparations to victims of legal crimes,” the spokesperson said.
Skye Perryman, lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case and CEO of the group Democracy Forward, called Brinkama’s order “a really important victory.”
“While the president does not have the authority to create the fund, there are also various constitutional issues with the fund that go beyond the lack of authority and the separation of powers,” Perryman said in an interview with MS NOW’s Chris Jansing Report.
“This fund itself, as described, clearly violates the First Amendment,” he said. “It’s trying to penalize or favor some people over others. It violates the Equal Protection Clause (of the U.S. Constitution). It operates in a very arbitrary way and it’s against the law. This is another federal law that they violate under the Administrative Procedure Act.”
“Of all President Trump’s corrupt schemes, the insurrectionist slush fund is one of the most depraved,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a post on X on Friday.
“While this ruling is an important victory, the fight is far from over,” Schumer wrote. “Democrats will continue to fight in the courts and in Congress to ensure that this $2 billion in contributions to cop beaters, criminals, and MAGA cronies never sees the light of day.
—CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this article.
Correction: The other plaintiff is University Professor Jonathan Caravello, who said he was arrested without grounds while protesting immigration raids in California in 2025. A previous version incorrectly stated the circumstances of Carabello’s arrest.
