Even without the “anti-weaponization” fund, the Trump administration has the ability to give payouts to Jan.6 rioters through an already existing mechanism: the Judgment Fund.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress this week that the Justice Department was “not moving forward” with the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, after congressional Republicans balked at it and refused to vote on a bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol.It materialized through a highly unusual agreement in which Donald Trump said he would drop his lawsuits against the government in exchange for its creation.Critics labeled it a “slush fund” for Trump’s allies, and it had already been temporarily blocked by a court before Blanche made the statements this week, following a lawsuit by a former Jan.
6 prosecutor and others who sued.By close of business Friday, the Justice Department must explain its current position to a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia, who will hold a hearing on June 12 to determine next steps.
There are at least four other lawsuits, including one from officers who protected the Capitol during the attack.On Thursday, Sens.Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., filed a brief in the lawsuit over the “anti-weaponization” fund filed by the former Jan.
6 prosecutor, arguing that it “constitutes an end-run around Congress’s institutional authority.”Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman, who heads the group that filed the suit, said bipartisan criticism was significant.The lawmakers “recognize what is at stake here — a dangerous scheme that would allow the executive branch to bypass Congress, distribute public money through a corrupt political rewards program, and weaken the fundamental checks and balances that protect our democracy,” she said.The “anti-weaponization” fund would have set up a new proc...