Two federal judges are set to hold separate hearings this week on the Trump administration's scuttled $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund," despite vows from the Department of Justice that the controversial plan is "not going forward."
With President Donald Trump continuing to defend the fund and calling for those charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack to be compensated, attorneys for a watchdog organization as well as a coalition of plaintiffs have asked federal judges to issue orders formally blocking the creation of the compensation fund.
"If it was up to me, I'd pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed," Trump said during an interview with NBC's Meet the Press that aired over the weekend.
The legal challenges to the fund are set to ramp up on Wednesday when a federal judge considers a request from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to issue an injunction blocking the fund. The nonpartisan organization has argued that despite the Trump administration's assurances, the charter documents creating the fund remain "in full force and effect."
"So long as the Fund's charter documents remain in effect, nothing stops Defendants from illegally siphoning, at any given moment, nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer dollars from the Treasury's Judgment Fund to an unidentified 'Designated Account' and rapidly disbursing those funds to whomever they want under a shroud of secrecy, in violation of the Constitution and multiple federal transparency and funding statutes," lawyers for CREW wrote in a court filing last Thursday.
Lawyers for CREW have highlighted Trump's statements -- including his claim that Jan. 6 defendants "should be reimbursed for a crooked government" -- to argue that the Department of Justice may not abandon the fund.
"There is ample reason to be skeptical of Defendants' representations. Through their sham settlement of Trump v. IRS and unlawful creation of the Fund, Defendants conducted what may be the single most corrupt act of self-dealing by any administration in American history," they argued.
Donald Trump speaks to the press before boarding Air Force One prior to departure from John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York, on June 8, 2026.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Lawyers with the Department of Justice have argued that the case is now moot, writing in a court filing that they would not move forward with the fund.
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"The equities and the public interest do not favor this Court interjecting itself in a political process to shut down a Fund that never got off the ground and is not going forward," DOJ attorneys wrote.
Later in the week, a different federal judge in Virginia is set to hold a similar hearing in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of plaintiffs. Last month, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema issued a temporary order barring the Trump administration from creating or transferring money into the fund.
The fund, which was announced by the DOJ to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration, was proposed in exchange for Trump agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS as well as two civil claims for $230 million related to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate -- sparking accusations of self-dealing and a bipartisan uproar over the possible use of taxpayer money to pay rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
As the two judges weigh blocking the creation of the fund, a separate judge in Florida is also reexamining the agreement that led to the proposed fund, as well as a provision protecting Trump and his family from IRS audits.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams launched an inquiry into the lawsuit that led to the settlement after a group of 35 former federal judges argued the case was a "product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the Court." Judge Williams ordered attorneys for Trump to respond to the allegations by Friday.
