Judge agrees to review Trump's $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund

A federal judge is reviewing a $1.8 billion fund set up to pay people the president says were wronged by the federal government. China Pool/Getty Images AsiaPac hide caption

A federal judge will review the Trump administration's nearly $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" after a group of former federal judges questioned its legitimacy.

The fund was established following Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Instead of going to trial, Trump administration lawyers and the president's personal legal team settled by agreeing to stand up the taxpayer-supported fund.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Florida on Friday ordered Trump's lawyers to respond to the motion filed by 35 former federal judges who argued that Trump is in a sense both the plaintiff and the defendant in the case, having filed it as president and also the leader of the executive branch overseeing the IRS. Thus, the judges wrote, the lawsuit "is itself a fraud on the court."

The former judges, appointed by both Democrat and Republican presidents, wrote that the lawsuit was used as a justification for the "looting" of American taxpayers. They described the case as a type of "collusion" between the president's lawyers and the federal government and asked the judge to re-open the case to determine if the settlement was reached only after the court was "deceived."

Williams, appointed by former President Barack Obama, had initially granted a dismissal of Trump's lawsuit following the settlement, but, in light of the former judges' motion, she said the court is "empowered to investigate serious misconduct."

It follows another judge in Virginia temporarily freezing the fund, which Trump officials have described as an effort to compensate Trump allies, Jan. 6 rioters and others the president says have been unjustly targeted.

That judge, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia, ordered on Friday that Trump officials stop setting up the pool of money to "ensure that no funds are irreversibly disbursed."