DOJ urges judge not to block ‘anti-weaponization’ fund despite already pledging not to pursue it

Justice DepartmentDOJ urges judge not to block ‘anti-weaponization’ fund despite already pledging not to pursue itA federal judge last week temporarily blocked the $1.8 billion fund from being used after a Jan. 6 prosecutor sued to block the Trump administration’s actions.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche during a hearing in Washington on Tuesday.Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 5, 2026, 6:23 PM EDTBy Ryan J. ReillyWASHINGTON — The Justice Department told a federal judge that even though the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is “not going forward,” it still opposes the court taking any action to block the initiative on a more permanent basis.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.In a filing Friday afternoon, Justice Department attorney Andrew Block and other DOJ representatives said that no money had been transferred to the fund and that no members of the five-person panel tasked with making decisions about distributing the funds had been appointed.“This is a rare case that is simultaneously moot and premature,” they wrote. “One of the reasons Plaintiffs were forced to speculate so much about how the Fund would operate is because so little had happened when they sued.”The Trump administration argued that the plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit — including a fired Jan. 6 prosecutor — lacked standing to bring the case because they can’t show they were injured by the fund’s existence.“No Members were appointed. No claims procedures were established. No claims were formally submitted, received, adjudicated, granted, or denied,” they wrote. The fund was designed to compensate people who say they “suffered weaponization and lawfare.”“The United States thus opposes Plaintiffs’ request for relief on justiciability and other grounds — not because the Fund will continue (it will not), bu...