WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Monday it will comply with a federal judge's order halting the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, shelving the payout program four days after U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema froze it and as Senate Majority Leader John Thune publicly urged the administration to shut it down itself.
The decision is the Trump administration's first concrete retreat from a fund it stood up to compensate people who say the federal government was used against them, and it removes, at least for now, a snag that had stalled Senate Republican negotiations over immigration-enforcement spending. A hearing on longer-term relief is set for June 12.
What the department said
In a statement on X, the department said it "disagrees strongly with the decision on the Anti-Weaponization Fund put forth by the United States District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia" but "will abide by the Court's ruling." The department said the fund had been "open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise."
Brinkema's Friday order bars the department from moving money into the fund, considering claims or making payments while she weighs a lawsuit brought by a former federal prosecutor who worked on Jan. 6 cases. This paper reported the freeze last Friday; Monday's news is the administration's decision not to fight it for now, and the Senate Republican pressure that helped force the call.
The Senate revolt
Thune told reporters at the Capitol he had spoken with President Trump about the fund over the weekend. "I do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves," the South Dakota Republican said.
The pushback came to a head at a Senate Republican conference meeting last month with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, CBS News reported, citing senators who described the closed-door session as intense. Only one or two Republican senators were comfortable with the fund, a GOP senator told PBS NewsHour correspondent Liz Landers. Leaders scrapped a planned vote on Department of Homeland Security immigration funding after the fund became a sticking point, and some senators wanted to bar payments to people who assaulted police officers on Jan. 6. Trump met with House Speaker Mike Johnson at the White House on Monday, and people familiar with the meeting said the fund came up. The Associated Press, citing a person familiar with the president's thinking, reported that Trump is reconsidering the step back.
A second courtroom
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in South Florida, who oversaw the civil suit against the Internal Revenue Service whose settlement created the fund, ordered Trump to answer questions about his decision to dismiss that case. Williams was responding to 35 former federal judges who argued the settlement "is a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the court." Allies of the president, including some of the roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants he pardoned on his first day back in office, had signaled they would seek payments; Brandon Fellows, convicted for his role in the Capitol attack, told PBS he wants up to $30 million.
The dissent
The department's statement framed the court's order as wrongly decided, and Trump defended the fund last month, saying he was helping people "who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized" Biden administration receive "justice." Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy over Jan. 6, told PBS he does not view Monday's move as the end of the program, saying the administration could resolve tort claims directly with no judicial or congressional oversight. No Senate Republican defended the fund on the record in Monday's reporting.
What's next
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged a coordinated Democratic effort to quash the fund. Sen. Adam Schiff of California, who is pushing a measure to shut it down by statute, said budget reconciliation would be the first chance to force votes. "There will be no hiding from this issue," Schiff said at a Monday news conference. Brinkema's June 12 hearing will determine whether the freeze becomes longer-term relief.