Trump officials refuse to sign document affirming end of slush fund

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) — A U.S. Justice Department attorney on Friday notified a federal court judge that Trump administration officials deemed “unnecessary” a requirement that they sign a document under penalty of perjury affirming that a proposed anti-weaponization fund was dead.

On June 12, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema gave three senior administration officials one week to sign a document attesting they had abandoned plans for the fund. But Andrew Block, senior counsel to the associate attorney general, argued no such assurance was necessary. “As stated multiple times, the fund is not moving forward.”

Brinkema, a Bill Clinton appointee, indefinitely extended her block on the nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, which was intended to compensate people who claim they were targeted by the federal government.

She also said she would consider declaring the challenge moot if acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed declarations under penalty of perjury that the fund would not proceed “in any manner, or under any name.”

Brinkema’s requirement that the fund not proceed in any form addressed its shifting status. While Blanche told Congress the administration would not move forward with the proposal, President Donald Trump later indicated he still wanted it.

Even so, Block argued the court already had sufficient assurances. He pointed to Blanche’s congressional testimony and statements made by attorneys in court. “All these statements were made against the backdrop of serious penalties for falsity,” Block wrote.

The court’s demands are unnecessary, he concluded. “And its presumption that mootness can arise only by compelling testimony from three senior government officials implicates separation of powers concerns.”

The fund emerged from a proposed settlement of a lawsuit Trump filed against his own administration, claiming the disclosure of his tax returns by a former government contractor entitled him to $10 billion in damages. The settlement included a liability waiver shielding Trump and the other plaintiffs from future audits and prosecutions, while the DOJ announced the creation of the $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund.

The proposal drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans, who warned the fund could be used to compensate people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

A coalition led by Andrew Floyd, a former assistant U.S. attorney who oversaw prosecutions stemming from the Jan. 6 attack, challenged the fund in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The plaintiffs said Floyd was fired for prosecuting Trump allies who are now themselves entitled to recover from the fund. The lawsuit names Blanche, Bessent and Woodward as defendants.

“It is telling that even after the federal court gave them a week, the acting attorney general and other senior administration officials continue to refuse to say under oath that the slush fund is dead and won’t operate in the future," said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a legal foundation that brought the lawsuit. “Nor have they provided any information under oath about their compliance with the court’s prior directives. Importantly, the slush fund continues to be blocked as a result of the court’s issuance of a preliminary injunction in our case and that order remains in place.”

Without a declaration in place by June 19, Brinkema ruled she would issue a scheduling order to move the case forward.