Trump administration abandons DOJ’s $1.8 billion lawfare fund

The Trump administration plans to abandon the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Arms Fund” in the face of legal and political resistance to it, reports said Monday.

The fund was created as part of the settlement of President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. It aims to compensate people who were allegedly victims of excessive prosecutions by the DOJ under the Biden administration.

In addition to the DOJ’s creation of the fund, the settlement included an agreement that protected Trump and his family members from any enforcement actions, including audits, related to their tax returns made before the deal was announced.

Reports that the fund had been put on ice came after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., met with Trump at the White House about the fund.

“I think the best way to deal with this is for the administration to decide to shut it down themselves,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, U.S., Friday, May 8, 2026.

Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Axios, in its report Monday, quoted a senior administration official as saying the fund was “dead for now.”

Punchbowl separately reported that “the administration is expected to announce that it will comply with the court order and not move forward with the arms fund.”

MS NOW soon after confirmed the Axios report.

A federal judge on Friday blocked the DOJ from taking any action to create or disburse money from the fund at this time, while a lawsuit challenging it plays out in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

Judge Léonie Brinkema also scheduled a hearing for June 12 on whether to maintain the injunction against the fund.

Brinkema is overseeing one of three federal lawsuits seeking to block the fund.

On Monday, a Justice Department spokesperson, when asked about reports that the fund had been abandoned, told CNBC in an email: “The Department of Justice strongly disagrees with the ruling on the anti-armament fund presented by the Judge of the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia, in which the Court declared that under no circumstances can the Department of Justice proceed with the recently created anti-armament fund in order to compensate for the enormous abuses, harms and hatred unjustly shown to so many people.

“This Fund was open to anyone who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether Democrat, Republican, conservative, independent, or otherwise,” the spokesperson said. “The ministry will respect the court’s decision.”

Brinkema’s decision imposed only a temporary suspension of the fund, not a permanent suspension.

The White House, when asked about the fate of the fund, referred CNBC to an article about DOJ’s X containing its statement that it would respect Brinkema’s decision.

Brinkema’s order to suspend the fund came hours before another federal judge, in Miami, effectively reopened Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, whose settlement led to the creation of the fund. Trump had sued the IRS over the leak of his tax records by an IRS employee.

Judge Kathleen Williams said in reopening the trial that she wanted to investigate “serious allegations” that Trump and the DOJ intentionally dismissed the case to avoid her examining the legitimacy of the suit.

Williams’ decision came after a group of 35 former federal judges urged her to reopen the case, arguing in a court filing that “the so-called ‘settlement’ that the parties never submitted to this Court raises profound questions about the parties’ candor with the Court and manipulation of the justice system, which threatens to undermine confidence in the administration of justice.”

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On Monday morning, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats would “launch a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before a dime is spent.”

Schumer said Democrats would force Republican senators to vote on the fund by offering a series of amendments in an expected reconciliation vote to fund immigration enforcement agencies within the Department of Homeland Security.

Criticism of the fund within the Republican Senate caucus last month led Republican senators to abandon plans for a reconciliation vote before the Senate recessed.

“If Trump and the Republicans truly abandon this corrupt system, they should have no problem banning it in law,” Schumer said in a tweet Monday.

“This week, Senate Democrats will pass legislation to ban this slush fund and ensure that no president can ever do it again,” Schumer said. “Trump’s word is far from enough.”

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