The Trump Justice Department fought back Friday after a judge ordered it to reveal who devised a controversial $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund — rejecting every argument officials made to keep the names hidden.
The now-abandoned fund was intended to pay out people who claimed they were unfairly investigated or prosecuted by the Justice Department. But a bipartisan chorus of critics forcefully rejected the proposal as an unconstitutional taxpayer-funded giveaway benefiting President Donald Trump’s political supporters.
“Who came up with it? That’s what conception means,” U.S. District Judge Ivan D. Davis said during a hearing Friday, according to The Washington Post.
The names must be disclosed to attorneys representing the plaintiffs, Davis ruled, “over the repeated objections of the Justice Department.” Their identities, however, will stay private unless the lawsuit reaches the trial stage, the outlet added.
The Justice Department immediately moved to appeal Davis’ decision.
“For weeks, Justice Department attorneys resisted demands to identify the people who conceived of the fund, trying several different legal arguments to prevent such disclosures,” the Post reported. “Davis rejected all of them.”
Attorney Aman George of Democracy Forward, who is representing the plaintiffs, argued that the identities behind the payout scheme are essential to the case because attorneys cannot determine whose records to seek or whom to question without knowing everyone behind the fund.
“They seemed hesitant to disclose the names of the people involved in this work,” George said at Friday’s hearing, according to the Post. “The names of attorneys, by itself, is simply not a piece of privileged information.”
The Trump administration is also appealing another loss after the same judge ordered the department to produce any relevant evidence dating back to January 2025.