Anti-weaponization fund is 'dead,' acting U.S. attorney general says

· UPI

June 2 (UPI) -- Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a congressional hearing Tuesday that the Department of Justice will not operate a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund that had been criticized as a way for the Trump administration to reward its allies.

"We are not moving forward with the fund, period," Blanche said during a House subcommittee meeting.

He also said that President Donald Trump, his family and their business entities are still protected against tax audits and enforcement connected with tax returns filed before the out-of-court settlement of Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. The fund was created to settle that lawsuit.

On Monday, the Justice Department said it would abide by a federal court ruling putting the fund on hold, although it "disagreed strongly" with the ruling. Blanche said the fund was defunct regardless of what happened with lawsuits against it.

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Democrats had been prepared to stop the fund with amendments, while Republican pushback against it also stood in the way of planned immigration enforcement funding votes.

The administration had said the fund was meant to compensate those targeted by former presidential administrations for political reasons, and Blanche said previously that he couldn't rule out payments to those convicted in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Police officers who'd defended the Capitol that day sued to prevent the fund, saying it was illegal.

Blanche said Tuesday that the fund's purpose was still sound.

"The reasons for the fund -- it's something that President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact that there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them," he said, Politico reported. "The reasons for the fund ... remain as important as [they] were before."