Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration’s ‘slush fund’ from advancing
After the Trump administration unveiled its unprecedented $1.776 billion compensation fund, which was quickly panned by members of both parties as a “slush fund,” a dramatic political fight began. But the dispute extended well beyond political circles: Opponents of the scandalous initiative also took the fight to the courts.
On Friday morning, one of those cases led to a court order the White House will probably not like.
U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema temporarily blocked the administration from advancing its plan to create the fund, issuing a two-page order preventing Team Trump “from taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which includes the transferring of money to the Fund; the consideration of any claims submitted to the Fund; and the disbursing of any funds from the Fund.”
To be sure, this is merely a preliminary step, which is unrelated to the underlying merits. For all intents and purposes, the judge (a Clinton appointee) decided to maintain the status quo until the court can hear additional arguments.
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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