US President Donald Trump’s US$1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged government “weaponisation” has been put on hold, two sources familiar with the plan said on Monday.
The fund emerged from a legal settlement between Trump and the Justice Department to resolve an unprecedented lawsuit in which the president had sued the Internal Revenue Service for US$10 billion over the alleged mishandling of his tax records.
The US$1.776 billion was meant to pay people who said they had been the subject of government abuse.
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The fund sparked swift legal challenges and political uproar, including from Senate Republicans, who expressed anger that people who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, could receive taxpayer-funded payouts.
Critics condemned it as a slush fund. On Friday, federal judges in Virginia and Florida dealt the administration a pair of blows, issuing orders that temporarily halted the fund until June 12 and called for further review.
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In a statement on Monday, a Justice Department spokesperson said the DOJ “disagrees strongly” with the temporary halting of the fund but, “the department will abide by the court’s ruling”.