JUNE 3, 2026
Acting Attorney General Blanche tells Congress the Justice Department will not proceed with Trump's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday that the Justice Department would not move forward with the administration's proposed anti-weaponization fund, stating "We are not moving forward with the fund, period." The fund, announced as part of a settlement between the Trump family and the IRS, had been pitched as a mechanism to compensate people who felt they were targeted by the government. A federal judge in Virginia had temporarily blocked the fund the previous week after a lawsuit filed by Democracy Forward and other organizations.
The abandonment of the fund came after mounting opposition from Republicans in Congress, many of whom objected to the possibility that participants in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot — including those convicted of assaulting police officers — could receive taxpayer payments. GOP senators had also sought assurances that the fund was definitively dead before agreeing to advance a roughly $70 billion reconciliation package to fund immigration enforcement operations.
When pressed by Democratic Rep. Grace Meng on whether the fund was being abandoned permanently — "Not moving forward, ever?" — Blanche replied, "Correct." Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that Blanche had previewed his remarks to him and hoped the statement would be sufficient to unite Republican members behind the immigration funding bill. Senate GOP leadership was pressing for a vote as soon as Wednesday to advance the package.
On the same day as Blanche's testimony, President Trump, in a podcast interview with the New York Post's "Pod Force One with Miranda Devine" taped Tuesday, suggested the fund had not been dropped of his own volition. "No, a court ruled against it," Trump said when asked if he had dropped the effort. He added that people he described as having been targeted by a "crooked government" "should be reimbursed." A Republican aide told CNN the comment would not impact Congress, saying Trump attributing the abandonment to a court ruling was "about as close to 'yes I'm dropping it' as we will get."