The Trump administration plans to withdraw the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” because of legal and political backlash against 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 is intended to compensate the alleged victims of prosecutorial harassment by the DOJ under the Biden administration.
Reports that the fund is being frozen 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 it is if the administration decides to shut it down,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., told reporters Monday.
US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, US, Friday, May 8, 2026.
Aaron Schwartz Bloomberg | Getty Images
Axios, in its report Monday, quoted a senior administration official as saying the fund is “dead for now.”
Punchbowl reported separately that “management is expected to announce that they will comply with the court order and not proceed with the weapons fund.”
MS NOW after confirming the Axios report.
On Friday, a federal judge blocked the DOJ from taking any action to create or withdraw money from the fund as of now in a counterclaim in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Judge Leonie Brinkema has also scheduled a court hearing for June 12 on whether to uphold the fund ban.
Brinkema is presiding over one of the three lawsuits the organization is seeking to block the fund.
On Monday, a DOJ spokesperson, when asked about reports that the fund is being withdrawn, told CNBC in an email, “The Department of Justice strongly disagrees with the Anti-Weaponization Fund decision issued by a United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, where the Court said, under any circumstances, may the Department of Justice continue with the Anti-Weaponization Fund and the recently established decision to avoid abuses.” hatred that has been unfairly shown to many people.”
“This fund is open to anyone who was armed, targeted or persecuted in this way, whether Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise,” said the spokesperson. “The Ministry will listen to the decision of the Court.”
Brinkema’s decision imposed only a temporary stay on the fund – not a permanent one.
The White House, when asked for comment on the end of the fund, referred CNBC to the DOJ’s X, which contained its statement that it would comply with Brinkema’s decision.
On Monday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said that Democrats “will launch a concerted effort to kill the slush fund before a penny goes out the door.”
Schumer said Democrats would force Republican senators to vote on the fund by offering a series of amendments during an expected reconciliation vote to fund immigration enforcement agencies at the Department of Homeland Security.
Criticism of the fund within the Senate GOP caucus last month led Republican senators to drop plans for a reconciliation vote before the Senate went into recess.
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