DOJ rebuffs judge’s request for Blanche to declare in court that anti-weaponization fund is dead
By Tierney Sneed, CNN
(CNN) — The Justice Department is rebuffing a judge’s request that it supply a court declaration from senior administration officials that would confirm that the so-called anti-weaponization fund is not moving forward.
In a new court filing Friday, the Justice Department said that the declarations were “unnecessary” and that the judge’s order that the administration file them raises “serious separation of powers concerns.”
The case — playing out on Alexandria, Virginia — is one of several legal challenges to the controversial $1.8 billion fund, which arose out of a settlement of a legally dubious lawsuit President Donald Trump filed against the IRS. It would have compensated people who claimed to have been victims of government “weaponization” under prior administrations, prompting allegations that it would operate as a slush fund for Trump’s allies.
As political opposition and legal hurdles mounted, the administration dropped its plans for the fund, and Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, the judge in the Virginia case, indicated she was inclined to rule the legal dispute in her courtroom as moot. But last week, she requested declarations from acting Attorney General Todd Balance, a top deputy of his, Associate Attorney General Stan Woodward, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirming that “they will not take any action to create or operate the Anti-Weaponization Fund, and that the Anti-Weaponization Fund will not proceed in any manner, or under any name.”
Absent such a submission, the case would move forward to the next steps, she said in the June 12 order.
In the new filing, the Justice Department pointed to Blanche’s testimony to Congress in which he said the fund was “not going forward, period,” as well as Woodward’s signatory on court filings saying the same.
The Department also argued that there was no “basis for the court to compel testimony from the Associate Attorney General and two Cabinet members.”
A DOJ account on X further elaborated Friday on the matter: “In essence, the judge’s demand for declarations was an attempt to require her to personally sign-off on any and all future settlements, separate from this non-existent Fund, that the department may make. Judges do not get to insert themselves into the department’s routine settlement authority.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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