Judge blocks DOJ’s Anti-weaponization fund for longer

A federal judge in Virginia on Friday issued a longer block against the Justice Department’s “Gun Fight Fund” application, saying Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s verbal assertion that the fund would not move forward was an insufficient guarantee.

Judge Leonie Brinkema gave Blanche and Treasure As Blanche recently testified to Congress, Secretary Scott Bess spent a week filing written affidavits that the funding would not move forward, MS NOW reported.

Brinkema’s injunction against the $1.8 billion fund came at the request of plaintiffs who are suing to permanently block the fund. The DOJ announced that the fund was created as part of the settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit that President Donald Trump filed against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax records by an IRS contractor.

Brinkekma repeatedly said during Friday’s hearing that Blanche’s recent statement to Congress alleging the Justice Department was not moving forward with funding was not enough to guarantee that was the case, MS NOW reported.

The judge stated that Trump said he wanted to move forward with the fund after Blanche’s statement, and Brinkema said this raised doubts about the Department of Justice’s claims.

Pooja Boistute, senior attorney at the advocacy group Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs, said after the hearing: “We are thrilled that the court understands that there is harm to our plants that must stop, and that harm must be done to the American people as a whole.”

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