{"id":3503,"date":"2026-06-12T16:06:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=3503"},"modified":"2026-06-12T16:06:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:06:51","slug":"federal-judge-indefinitely-blocks-trumps-1-8-billion-payout-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=3503","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge indefinitely blocks Trump\u2019s $1.8 billion payout fund"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
President Donald Trump signs a proclamation in the Oval Office on Thursday. (Jacquelyn Martin\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A federal judge on Friday indefinitely blocked President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed $1.8 billion payout fund, which is still being challenged in court despite Justice Department officials claiming the effort is dead.<\/p>

Read more The World Cup comes to Trump\u2019s America<\/a><\/p>\n

At a hearing in Virginia federal court, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema issued a preliminary injunction blocking the <\/b>fund, which the administration sought to create for those who claim they were improperly investigated by the government. She forcefully rejected the government\u2019s arguments that the case was moot, citing Trump\u2019s praising of the idea and acting attorney general Todd Blanche\u2019s unwillingness to say under the penalty of perjury that the administration will not try to stand it up in the future. <\/b><\/p>\n

She gave the government one week to enter a \u201cclear, unambiguous\u201d declaration in the court record that the fund is dead, at which time she will consider dismissing the case.<\/p>\n

A Justice Department attorney argued that he, as an officer of the court, had put in a court filing to Brinkema that the fund has \u201cnot been set up and is now not going forward.\u201d But Brinkema said that wasn\u2019t sufficient, making clear that the declaration she desired needed to be signed by the treasury secretary and Blanche for her to see the government\u2019s claim the fund was dead as legitimate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the kind of absolute certainty that this fund wouldn\u2019t rear its head\u201d again, she said, adding later that the \u201cpublic interest in this case is very, very strong in my view.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Algae forms in the Reflecting Pool. It\u2019s \u2018residual,\u2019 Trump officials say.<\/a><\/p>\n

Brinkema had temporarily blocked the Trump administration\u2019s plans for the fund in late May after several plaintiffs represented by the group Democracy Forward filed suit and asked the judge in an emergency filing to halt the fund. She ordered the administration to pause its creation and barred them from disbursing the $1.8 billion fund until she could hold a hearing on June 12.<\/p>\n

But then last week, Justice Department officials called off the effort themselves \u2014 reassuring Brinkema and a D.C. federal judge overseeing a similar legal challenge that the fund has \u201cnot been set up and is now not going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, Blanche told members of Congress that the administration had scrapped plans for the fund after intense and bipartisan political backlash. But he has resisted calls to put that pledge in writing or to publicly amend the agreement that created the fund, an out-of-court deal the president\u2019s personal lawyers struck with the Justice Department to resolve three legal claims Trump had filed against the government.<\/p>

Read more There are two Dan Sullivans in Alaska\u2019s Senate race. Yes, really.<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a developing story. It will be updated.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said the government has not provided \u201cabsolute certainty\u201d it won\u2019t try to resurrect the fund in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nFederal judge indefinitely blocks Trump\u2019s $1.8 billion payout fund - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=3503\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal judge indefinitely blocks Trump\u2019s $1.8 billion payout fund - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"U.S. District Judge Leonie M. 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