'Don't Play Possum With Me!': Judge Issues Explosive Warning to Trump's DOJ Over 'Dead' $1.8B Anti-Weaponization Fund

A federal judge in Washington issued a stark warning to the Department of Justice during a high-stakes court hearing on Wednesday.

The admonition arrived as the court weighed an emergency request to freeze Donald Trump's highly controversial, multi-billion-dollar settlement fund. Though government lawyers claimed the program was already effectively dead, the bench made it clear that any attempts to quietly revive it would face severe judicial scrutiny.

An explicit request to legally freeze the Trump administration's disputed $1.776 billion (£1.33 billion) initiative, intended to provide financial redress to individuals alleging they were targets of politically driven state inquiries and trials, has been denied by a federal jurist.

At a concise midweek court session in Washington, US District Judge Richard Leon refused to grant the emergency injunction sought by a watchdog group to halt both the establishment of the 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' and its subsequent distribution of capital.

The administration's efforts to get the scheme off the ground have already been stalled by another federal jurist, who paused the rollout during a parallel lawsuit in Virginia.

Conflicting Signals From Trump and Blanche

The proposal triggered such a massive political backlash that the acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, told a House committee last week that the scheme was completely dead. 'We're not moving forward with the fund, period,' Blanche stated, though he point-blank refused to back up that promise in writing.

Just three days later, President Donald Trump showed he wasn't ready to let the scheme die, expressing a strong desire to bring it back during a broadcast appearance. 'Me, personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans,' Trump remarked on NBC's Meet The Press. 'You have to get it approved. ... If they don't get it approved, I'd be disappointed.'

Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, doubted that Trump's comments signalled a resurrection of the project, suggesting the president could simply be playing to his base. 'He might be doing that ... for political benefit to himself,' the judge observed.

He noted that the legal challenge brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington 'appears to be moot' given the administration's formal assertions that the plan is dead.

The 'Play Possum' Judicial Warning

The judge made it clear he took the government at its word in its legal submissions that the project is dead, reminding the room that he holds the power to penalise any lawyer who lies to his court. While he held off on an immediate freeze, he kept the watchdog's request for a preliminary injunction squarely on the table, signalling he is ready to step in the moment the administration shows any sign of resurrecting the plan. 'I give the Justice Department this warning: Don't play possum with me,' Leon cautioned.

The scheme actually remains on ice until the end of the week because of a separate freeze ordered by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema out of Alexandria. She halted all progress on the project last month during proceedings for a parallel lawsuit.

Leon cast doubt on the legitimacy of that ruling on Wednesday, pointing out that it looked like an 'administrative stay,' something he argued district court judges simply do not have the legal authority to hand down.

DOJ Pressed Over Contradictory Procedures

Even though Leon acknowledged he would take the Justice Department at its word that the project had been halted, he repeatedly pressed DOJ attorney Andrew Block on a glaring contradiction: why hadn't Blanche revoked the 18 May directive that officially set up the rules for the fund?

'I don't know the answer to that question, Your Honor,' Block admitted. The DOJ attorney also maintained that Trump's broadcast comments actually aligned fairly well with Blanche's insistence that the project was dead, arguing that the president's statement 'isn't a directive to more forward with the fund.'

Watchdog Warns of Looming Deadlines

A lawyer representing CREW, Nikhel Sus, pointed out that the entire project stemmed from a legal settlement of a lawsuit Trump had filed in a federal court in Florida over the leak of his tax returns to the press during his first presidency. Sus argued that this settlement 'remains in full force and effect' and insisted that Blanche's remarks to the House committee were 'not a legally valid rescission.'

Furthermore, the clock is ticking on strict deadlines built into that deal, which mandates a five-person oversight board by 17 June and the actual cash transfer by 17 July. Without Brinkema's freeze holding things back, Sus warned that the administration would be completely free to hit the accelerator.

A hearing has been scheduled for Friday by Brinkema, a Clinton appointee, to address the litigation in her court. However, the plaintiffs are pushing to delay the session so they can first extract internal DOJ documents detailing exactly how the project was put together.