A federal judge has ordered a temporary halt to the Trump administration’s efforts to set up a nearly $1.8 billion slush fund for Trump supporters who say they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted by previous administrations. The so-called anti-weaponization fund was announced by the Department of Justice last month as part of a settlement between the IRS and Donald Trump and his family, after the President sued his own administration for $10 billion over the leaking of his tax returns by an employee of a federal contractor. The Wall Street Journal reports more than a dozen Republican senators have privately urged top Trump aides to abandon the fund over concerns it could award millions of dollars to Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol and its police on January 6, 2021. Former Vice President Mike Pence also condemned the fund.

Mike Pence: “Let’s get rid of this fund. I mean, I mean, it’s deeply offensive to me that you could have a fund that could even possibly compensate people who assaulted police officers or vandalized the Capitol on January 6th. And I think that’s broadly held by most Republicans.”