Judge Orders Trump Administration to Name Architects of $1.8 Billion 'Anti-Weaponization' Fund

U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis ordered the Trump administration on Sept. 4, 2026, to disclose who designed the $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund and how it was structured, granting part of a discovery motion in a suit by Democracy Forward for a fired Jan. 6 prosecutor and a law professor. The fund, set up in a settlement among Trump's private attorneys, his sons, his company and the IRS, was meant to compensate people who say they were targeted by prior administrations and could have paid Jan. 6 defendants convicted of violent crimes; it would also have shielded Trump's businesses from IRS audits.

DOJ lawyers argued the case was moot after Attorney General Todd Blanche rescinded the fund Aug. 3, but Davis ruled ordinary discovery rules still apply. Blanche's order was signed only by him, not Trump, and left the IRS-immunity portion unaddressed, leading Sen. Adam Schiff to say the fund could still be revived and the deal "leaves in place a tax-immunity deal" shielding roughly $2.3 billion Trump reported last year.

Democracy Forward called the ruling "a significant step in getting to the bottom of the slush fund."