A federal judge has temporarily halted the creation of President Donald Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to prevent it from making payouts before the court can hear arguments in the case next week. The case was brought by a group including Andrew Floyd, a former federal prosecutor who said he was fired for his work on cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. It’s one of several lawsuits to stop the approximately $1.8 billion fund.U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia enjoined the Trump administration “from taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund,” including transferring money, considering claims or making payments. The Trump administration announced the fund last week as a “settlement” of a lawsuit Trump filed against his own administration over the leak of his private tax information during his first term. Administration officials have said Jan. 6 rioters would be eligible for payments from the fund, prompting outrage from Democrats and Republicans alike. “By its own terms, the Anti-Weaponization Fund is available only to claimants who assert that they were targeted by ‘Democrat’ administrations, even though the current administration has weaponized the awesome power of the federal government against its perceived political opponents like no other administration before it,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint last week. The White House declined to comment, deferring to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.“Today, a federal court recognized the urgent need to prevent taxpayer dollars from being distributed through a secretive and unprecedented political compensation scheme before the legality of that program can be fully reviewed by the court,” Skye Perryman, president of the group Democracy Forward, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. The Justice Department announced the fund last week, before a federal judge hearing Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS could throw out the case. The judge did not approve the settlement, and neither did Congress. Perryman said, “No administration has the authority to spend public money through a political rewards program that Congress never authorized.”This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.