Todd Blanche’s $1.776 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ was supposed to be the scandal. A judge froze it. Republicans balked.
The Acting Attorney General told Congress it was over, and on August 2 he signed a document rescinding the order that created it.
None of that matters. The checks were already going out, and they haven’t stopped.
‘Anti-weaponization’ payouts never depended on the fund.
Since Trump returned to office, the Justice Department has paid more than $8.5 million to settle legal claims brought by his allies and supporters, according to The Washington Post.
That figure is from late April, so it has already changed.
How ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund Money Goes to Trump Allies, Cronies From DOJ
There’s a permanent Treasury account called the Judgment Fund. It exists to pay settlements and court judgments against the federal government, and it’s been around for decades.
Congress doesn’t vote on individual payments. There’s no appropriations fight.
DOJ agrees to settle a claim, Treasury cuts the check, done.
That’s the process. It’s ordinary, it’s legal, and it works the same whether the person being paid is a wronged citizen or the president’s friend.
Which is why killing the ‘Anti-weaponization fund’ didn’t make a difference.
Who Got Paid So Far?
MICHAEL FLYNN — $1.25 million. Trump’s first-term national security adviser pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador.
Trump pardoned him. Flynn then sued the government for $50 million, claiming malicious prosecution. A federal judge threw the case out.
A second judge warned that his refiled arguments came close to warranting sanctions.
In March 2026, DOJ settled anyway. Lawfare obtained the full settlement text through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
MICHAEL FLYNN (again) — In late June, DOJ finalized a second settlement with Flynn — this one over roughly $38,000 the Army withheld from his retirement pay after concluding he’d taken money from Russia Today without permission. Reported amount: under $75,000.
CARTER PAGE — $1.25 million. The former Trump campaign adviser surveilled under FISA in 2016 sued over it. A court dismissed his case. DOJ settled in April 2026.
ASHLI BABBITT’S ESTATE — $4.975 million. A Capitol Police lieutenant shot Babbitt on January 6, 2021, as she climbed through a shattered window into the Speaker’s Lobby.
DOJ cleared the officer in 2021. Capitol Police cleared him too.
The administration settled the family’s $30 million wrongful death suit anyway; roughly a third went to their lawyers, including Judicial Watch.
PAUL VAUGHN — seven figures. Vaughn was convicted by a Tennessee jury in 2024 of conspiring to block access to an abortion clinic. His million-dollar payout was announced two days before senators were scheduled to vote on advancing Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General.
FORMER FBI AGENTS (At least 9-10 agents) — Rep. Jamie Raskin’s May 12 letter to Blanche says DOJ intervened in nearly a dozen cases to override the FBI’s own disciplinary process.
- One agent entered a restricted area of the Capitol on January 6 and lied to investigators about it — he got a lump sum DOJ payout plus hundreds of thousands in back pay.
- Another leaked sensitive information about Chinese intelligence activity.
- A third refused to investigate a violent white nationalist group and paid for sex while on official travel overseas; he was reinstated, with compensation.
Their names are not public. All were represented by Empower Oversight, a group tied to former staffers of Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley — and Raskin says current Grassley staff took part in the settlement talks.
Raskin has a separate open investigation into the Flynn payout alone.
About That Rescission
Blanche’s August 2 document was presented as if it kills the ‘book’Anti-weaponization fund’ for good. It doesn’t.
The Tax Law Center at NYU Law points out that the document rescinds Blanche’s order — but leaves the underlying settlement agreement untouched.
That matters, because a settlement is a contract between parties.
One side can’t just amend it on their own. As the Center puts it, the rescission “does not prevent the Trump plaintiffs from suing the government to try to enforce the settlement, including the fund” — a point Blanche himself conceded at his confirmation hearing.
Their policy director, Brandon DeBot, put it bluntly: “These assurances are not worth the paper they’re written on.”
There’s a non-zero chance that Blanche didn’t have all parties sign the document because that was the plan all along.
Make the document look important and professional, sign it as Acting Attorney General, and don’t tell Cornyn or Tillis that the document is useless — it doesn’t modify or reverse anything in the original settlement agreement. 🤫
Trump reportedly threatened to bring the fund back over the same weekend.
What’s Still Hidden
On August 3, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued the Treasury Department, arguing it is illegally withholding required disclosures about who is receiving Judgment Fund money.
CREW wants every payment going back to the start of this administration, plus corrections to descriptions it says are inaccurate.
“Taxpayers deserve to know where their money is going and why,” CREW president Donald Sherman said, “especially if it’s going to the president’s cronies.”
That’s the story in one line. The anti-weaponization fund made headlines because it was announced.
The Judgment Fund is barely talked about, because nobody has to announce anything.
Still pending: Trump’s own $230 million claim against the department he runs, and a $100 million suit from five Proud Boys leaders convicted over January 6.
The “slush” fund for “cop- beaters, as Senator Schiff labeled it, was the loud version. This one is hiding, peeking out from time to time.
Share this story and shine a light on the DOJ’s use of The Judgment Fund, unfazed that there’s no ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund.’
They don’t need it. They never did. It would have made handing out millions to his cronies much easier to explain, but they can continue to keep the payouts a secret.
Force “The DOJ is handing out checks to Trump’s cronies” into the headlines: Share this story.
