The Daily Fuckup

A federal judge has put the Trump administration’s Anti-Weaponization Fund on ice again, this time with an indefinite block and a requirement that the government tell the court, under oath, that the program is done.

On June 12, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema extended an earlier injunction and said the administration had one week to file a sworn declaration that it would not move ahead with the fund. The order followed a temporary block issued on May 29, keeping the roughly $1.776 billion program from going forward while the legal fight continues.

The fund emerged from a Justice Department settlement tied to the IRS tax-return leak case involving Trump and related plaintiffs. The administration has described it as a way to compensate people who say they were harmed by government “weaponization” or lawfare. But the structure and scope of the program quickly drew objections from Democrats, watchdogs and some Republicans, who said the plan lacked clear guardrails and could create a politically loaded payout mechanism with little public detail about who would qualify.

Those concerns now run alongside the court fight. Brinkema’s latest order did not resolve the merits of the dispute, but it did make clear that the court was not willing to let the administration treat the fund as a live program while the case is pending. The government’s own pause, combined with the judge’s injunction, leaves the effort stuck in legal limbo.

For now, the practical result is simple: the fund cannot move forward unless the administration either persuades the court otherwise or abandons the effort altogether. What was sold as a correction to government abuse has become another test of how far the White House can push a politically charged settlement before judges demand specifics.