A U.S. federal court has ordered the temporary suspension of the nearly $1.8 billion fund (more than 1.5 billion euros) promoted by the Trump Administration to compensate alleged victims of lawfare during the previous term, including coverage of any possible compensation.
District Judge Leonie Brinkema issued a ruling this Thursday that prevents the Department of Justice from "taking any further action related to the creation or operation" of said fund "to ensure that funds are not irreversibly disbursed."
The court order covers the "transfer" of resources to the program, "the processing of any application submitted" to access compensation, and "the disbursement of any" amount from that mechanism.
The magistrate, who presides in the Eastern District of Virginia, has adopted this measure provisionally while she analyzes whether to grant a permanent "injunction" requested by a group of plaintiffs who have challenged the legality of the fund.
Among the promoters of the lawsuit is former federal prosecutor Andrew Floyd, who investigated and prosecuted those involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol before being dismissed by former Attorney General Pam Bondi. Floyd held the position of deputy chief in a specialized unit created in the Prosecutor's Office to lead these proceedings.
Along with him, Jonathan Caravello, a California professor arrested while protesting an immigration raid, and several NGOs filed the complaint last week, arguing that the fund announced by the Trump Administration is illegal, according to CBS News.
In parallel, on Wednesday, two former police officers who defended the Capitol during the attack—former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and former member of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department Daniel Hodges—filed another lawsuit against the Trump Administration, alleging that the program could be used to fund compensation for participants in the insurrection.
The controversy arises after the Department of Justice communicated that, "as part of the out-of-court settlement in the case" of Trump v. the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Prosecutor's Office had established this fund with the aim of "addressing the claims of those who have suffered abuses and illegalities."
In that case, the plaintiffs —among them the former president's son, Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization— had filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Treasury and the IRS following the leak of their 2019 and 2020 tax returns. However, the agreement stipulated that they would not receive "monetary compensation or damages of any kind".