The Trump administration’s newly created nearly $1.8 billion fund for allies of President Donald Trump who say they were wrongly targeted by the government has been hit with another legal challenge, with critics filing lawsuits Friday to block payouts from the fund. The money, drawn from taxpayer-backed machinery inside the Justice Department, is now at the center of a fight over who gets to control the public purse and who gets paid when power decides to reward its own.
Who Gets Paid, Who Pays
The fund was announced Monday and was born out of an extraordinary settlement reached between the Trump administration and Trump, one of his adult sons and the Trump Organization in a lawsuit they brought in January over the unauthorized disclosure of Trump’s tax information years ago. The fund will be run by five commissioners selected by the attorney general and will review claims submitted by people who say they were unfairly targeted by previous administrations. The money is being drawn from the DOJ’s Judgment Fund, taxpayer money set aside by Congress for monetary settlements the government reaches.
That setup has drawn a fresh lawsuit from critics who asked a judge in Alexandria, Virginia, to block the Trump administration from distributing any money. CNN said the plaintiffs include a former federal prosecutor and a prominent government watchdog group, and that they argued the fund is unconstitutional and violates a series of federal laws. AP News identified the plaintiffs as former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Floyd, an Alexandria resident who prosecuted Capitol riot cases in Washington, D.C., before he was fired last year by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, and California State University Channel Islands professor Jonathan Caravello, who was acquitted of an assault charge after being accused of throwing a tear gas canister at federal agents during a 2025 protest against an immigration raid at a Camarillo, California, cannabis farm.
The People Challenging the Machine
Also named as plaintiffs were the government watchdog Common Cause; the city of New Haven, Connecticut; and the National Abortion Federation, an association of abortion providers. New Haven said Trump administration officials have targeted it and other municipalities they perceive to be sanctuary cities. The federation said it feared the fund would issue payments to people who have attacked abortion clinics, providing an incentive for more violence against its members.
The suit’s defendants include the Justice and Treasury departments, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Spokespeople for the departments did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The legal challenge lands against an administration that has built the fund around its own claims of victimhood while using public money to potentially compensate allies and loyalists.
What They Call Accountability
The new lawsuit said the Trump administration’s decision to draw from the Judgment Fund is unlawful because the underlying legal case was “meritless” given the president’s unique role as both a plaintiff and the executive branch agencies named as defendants. The plaintiffs also said the fund violates the Constitution by usurping Congress’ authority over the country’s purse strings.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward and one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, said, “This latest attempt by the Trump-Vance administration to make grift great again is profoundly unlawful and will not withstand judicial scrutiny. This lawsuit is about protecting the rule of law and preventing a dangerous abuse of government power, and we will keep showing up in court to hold this administration accountable.”
CNN said the new fund has drawn criticism from Democrats and some members of Trump’s own party, with Senate Republicans saying they were blindsided by it and at odds over how to rein it in. CNN also reported that during a private meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday, several senators warned that the party’s major immigration enforcement bill could be derailed with the issue of the fund hanging over them, and hardly any members spoke up in the meeting to defend it.
The Long Shadow of Jan. 6
AP News said two police officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol from the Jan. 6, 2021, mob also sued this week to prevent anyone, including Capitol rioters, from receiving payments from the settlement fund. During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche would not rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 could be eligible for fund payouts.
AP News said the Capitol riot investigation was the largest in Justice Department history, that Trump ended it with the stroke of his pardon pen, erasing hundreds of Jan. 6 convictions, and that nearly 1,600 people were charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 1,200 were convicted and sentenced before Trump handed out mass pardons, commuted prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of every pending Jan. 6 criminal case. Beneficiaries of Trump’s clemency included supporters who assaulted officers at the Capitol and far-right extremist group members imprisoned for plotting to attack the Capitol to keep Trump in office after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.
After Trump returned to the White House last year, he appointed conservative activist Ed Martin as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin, a leading advocate for Jan. 6 defendants, fired or demoted some prosecutors who worked on Capitol riot cases. The fund and the lawsuits were reported on Friday, May 22, 2026.