Bipartisan Senate duo urges court to maintain block on DOJ fund, calling it a "dire threat" to Constitution

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Updated on: June 4, 2026 / 3:59 PM EDT

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Washington — A bipartisan pair of senators urged a federal court Thursday to continue blocking the Justice Department from moving forward with its $1.7 billion "anti-weaponization fund," warning that it is an "immediate and dire threat" to the constitutional order and arguing it is designed to provide payouts to people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.Sens. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, and Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, raised their objections to the fund in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the court in eastern Virginia. A judge there temporarily blocked the Justice Department last week from taking any action regarding the program, including considering claims or disbursing funds, while she considers whether to grant longer-lasting relief.In their filing, the senators said the judge should maintain her injunction and ultimately rule in favor of the plaintiffs challenging the fund, which include a former federal prosecutor who worked on Jan. 6-related cases."The Anti-Weaponization Fund presents an immediate and dire threat to our constitutional order and the authority of Congress," Cassidy and Booker wrote. "Indeed, among other purposes, the Fund is designed to compensate the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. The existence of the Fund strikes at the core of Congressional authority and our Constitutional order."The senators said that the fund violates the Constitution's Spending, Appropriations and Appointments Clauses.In their brief, they said they "respectfully urge this Court to recognize that what is at stake in this litigation is not an ordinary dispute about executive spending authority or the boundaries of the clemency power. It is a question of whether the machinery of democratic government may be turned, by design and with explicit intent, against the democratic foundations it exists to serve."The Justice Department announced the anti-weaponization fund last month as part of a deal to settle a civil lawsuit President Trump filed against the IRS in January over the leak of his tax returns by a former government contractor. The $1.7 billion fund aims to "provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare," according to the Justice Department.