Virginia Judge Extends Block on Trump Administration's $1.8 Billion Settlement Fund
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered that the court-ordered injunction against the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion settlement fund remain in place pending further court action.
A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, extended a court-ordered injunction that bars the Trump administration from creating or operating a $1.8 billion settlement fund intended to compensate individuals who claim they were harmed by a "weaponized" government. Judge Leonie Brinkema said the government’s argument that the case is moot "doesn’t go anywhere" and gave the parties a week to negotiate a sworn declaration that the fund will not be revived.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had told Congress that the administration was abandoning the fund after bipartisan criticism, and Justice Department lawyers argued that related lawsuits were now moot. Plaintiffs’ attorneys, represented by the advocacy group Democracy Forward, rejected that position and asked the court to keep the fund blocked.
The fund was originally created to resolve a lawsuit by former President Donald Trump against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Plaintiffs argue that diverting taxpayer money for the fund would be unlawful. The injunction was first issued on May 29 and was set to expire on Friday, prompting the new extension.
In a separate case in Washington, D.C., Judge Richard Leon accepted the Justice Department’s claim that the fund is moot, contrasting with Brinkema’s stance. Justice Department attorney Andrew Block said he could not provide a definitive answer about the status of the earlier May 18 order establishing the fund.
The Virginia case includes plaintiffs such as a former prosecutor, a college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents, the watchdog group Common Cause, the city of New Haven, Connecticut, and the National Abortion Federation. No payouts have been made because the required commission to evaluate claims was never formed.
"The (government’s) mootness argument, in my view, doesn’t go anywhere," Judge Brinkema said.
"It’s a huge gap in the record that we don’t have an answer to that question," Brinkema added.
Democracy Forward attorney Pooja Boisture argued that reviving the fund would undermine the plaintiffs’ lawsuit, and the judge agreed that a court order blocking the fund would not harm the government if the administration is indeed abandoning it.
