DOJ sworn declaration ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
Acting U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche speaks at a news conference hosted by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin about the prosecution of unaccompanied minors and their sponsors on June 11, 2026 in Washington, DC, USA.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
The Justice Department rejected a federal judge’s request for written certification that it would not move forward with the “gunfighting fund,” arguing in a filing Friday that it would be “unnecessary” and that the request raises “serious separation of powers concerns.”
Judge Leonie Brinkema last week extended the blockade of $1.8 billion in funds planned to compensate alleged victims of prosecutorial overreach during the Biden administration. He argued that Justice Department leadership’s verbal assertions that the funding was not moving forward were inadequate.
Brinkema gave Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a week to submit written, affidavits saying the fund would not move forward without agreeing to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to permanently block the fund.
“The Acting Attorney General testified before Congress that the Fund had ‘failed to move forward’…The undersigned attorney twice signed briefs confirming that ‘the Fund has not moved forward,’ and Defendants’ counsel said essentially the same thing twice in open court,” DOJ attorney Andrew Block wrote in his Friday filing. Justice Department attorney Andrew Block wrote in his filing Friday.
“All these statements were made in an environment where there are serious penalties for fraud,” Block wrote.
Blanche had previously testified to a House panel that the fund had failed to advance, but stopped short of making that claim in writing. He was not under penalty of perjury at the time, MS Now reported.
Following Blanche’s testimony, President Donald Trump said he wanted to move forward with the funding, which Brinkema cited as grounds for doubting the DOJ’s claims and requesting affidavits from Blanche and Bessent.
In May, the Department of Justice announced that it had created this fund as part of the settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit it filed against the Internal Revenue Service due to the leak of Trump’s tax records by an IRS contractor.
The plan has been sharply criticized from both sides of the aisle over concerns it could be used to pay off Trump allies, including those who have pleaded guilty to crimes connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
