Justice Department urges judge not to block ‘anti-weaponization’ fund that it says is already dead

A 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.

WASHINGTON — 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.

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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.”