The Department of Justice has refused to supply signed declarations from Trump administration officials pledging not to to create the nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that critics have a labelled a “slush fund” that would reward January 6 rioters and other Trump allies.
In a court filing, a top Justice Department lawyer said Judge Leonie Brinkema’s demand for the sworn documents as a condition for dismissing a lawsuit over the controversial fund proposal amounted to judicial “overreach.”
“Such declarations are unnecessary and the compelled testimony of senior officials from the Executive Branch implicates serious separation of powers concerns,” wrote Andrew Block, senior counsel to Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr.
In his Friday filing, Block cited acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent congressional testimony that the fund was “not going forward, period.”
He also said that he has twice signed briefs “reaffirming” that position, and that the Justice Department “has twice said substantially the same thing in open court.”
“All these statements were made against the backdrop of serious penalties for falsity,” he wrote.
Earlier this month, the judge issued a preliminary injunction that blocks the government from establishing the compensation fund.
During a court hearing on June 12, Brinkema stressed that Blanche’s congressional testimony wasn’t enough to satisfy her.
She gave him, Woodward and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent until Friday to file the declarations if they wanted her to declare a lawsuit over the fund as moot.
Brinkema also warned that if the declarations weren’t filed by her deadline, she would issue a scheduling order and require the defendants to file a response by July 17.
Block now says that “such declarations are unnecessary.”
The lead plaintiff in the case is Andrew Floyd, a former federal prosecutor who alleged that he was fired for prosecuting Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to try to prevent Congress from certifying his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Blanche and other administration officials have insisted that they are following the court’s order and abandoning plans for the fund, but officials have also suggested that they are still looking for pathways to issue payouts.
The Justice Department said the fund was being created as part of an alleged settlement agreement between Trump and his own administration. Trump agreed to dismiss a lawsuit against the IRS, which he sued for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns by an agency contractor.
The deal also includes a provision that bars the Justice Department and IRS from taking legal action against Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization for any other past alleged wrongdoing.
The president has claimed he wasn’t involved in discussions about creating the fund, which would ostensibly compensate people who Blanche said were the “victims of lawfare” by the Biden administration.
But the president has also said he “loves” the idea. He recently told NBC’s Meet the Press that “it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve.”
“People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed,” Trump said during a June 12 interview that aired two days later.
The sitdown in Wisconsin ended abruptly when Trump got angry and stormed off after host Kristen Welker pressed him for evidence to support his unfounded claims that the 2020 election and the recent California gubernatorial primary were “rigged.”
“You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” he said. “You play right into their hands with this crap.”
