Judge says lawsuit against Trump DOJ fund will proceed

A federal judge on Thursday Ministry of JusticeThe US process of creating a $1.8 billion “counterproliferation” fund will continue because the Justice Department has refused to confirm to it in writing that the fund is dead, the department has said verbally.

Judge Leonie Brinkema, Order in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.He said that if the Justice Department had given him “a brief, written statement under penalty of perjury” that the fund was actually dead, that would have been enough to dismiss the case as moot.

Brinkema said his refusal to rescind acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s May 18 memo setting out the structure of the fund, as well as his and President Donald Trump’s continued interest in compensating alleged victims of the Justice Department’s overreach, “all support this conclusion” that the case is not moot.

The judge ordered the Department of Justice to submit its response to the lawsuit by July 17.

Blanche created the fund as part of Trump’s settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit he filed against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax records. The fund, which will have a possible total payout of $1.776 billion, referring to the year the Declaration of Independence was signed, is designed to provide compensation to people allegedly “subject to arms and law enforcement.”

Critics have called it a “secret fund” that will pay off Trump allies, including hundreds of people convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

After harsh criticism from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Blanche told a House committee on June 2 that the funding “doesn’t go forward.”

Justice Department lawyers pointed to that statement in arguing that it was enough for Brinkema and another federal judge to dismiss cases challenging the funding.

In a court filing this week, the Justice Department said written representations that the funding had expired were “unnecessary” and that Brinkema’s request that Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put Blanche’s promise in writing “implied serious separation of powers concerns.”

But Brinkema wrote in Thursday’s order: “The defendants’ refusal to give a real degree of credibility to their statements that the Fund will not move forward is particularly troubling given the President’s consistent support of the Fund and Acting Attorney General Blanche’s admission that the Fund remains ‘substantial.'”

“Although Deputy Chief Prosecutor Blanche reiterated several times during her testimony,
When asked whether the fund would not move forward and whether it would issue a new note in writing canceling the May 18 note, he replied: “I am not committing to putting anything in writing.” And I said that over and over again,” Brinkema said.

Plaintiffs in the case include former federal prosecutor Andrew Floyd, who says he was fired for filing charges against Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol. The other plaintiffs are Jonathan Caravello, a professor at California State University Channel Islands, and the city of New Haven, Conn.