Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos
WATCH: Trump administration 'not moving forward' with anti-weaponization fund, Blanche testifies
Posted
June 2, 2026
Views
23,046
Likes
253
Engagement
1.10%
June 2, 2026
23,046
253
1.10%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
3:26Now PlayingActing Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Tuesday that the Trump administration was not "moving forward" with a controversial “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., asked Blanche whether the Justice Department planned to reinstate its $1.8 billion fund following a court-mandated temporary pause.
“We're not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche said during a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee.
The Justice Department moved to create the fund as part of a settlement with President Donald Trump to end a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leaking of his tax returns. A federal judge blocked the fund for two weeks pending additional legal arguments.
On Monday, the Justice Department said it disagreed with the ruling but would comply with it. Many Senate Republicans opposed the fund and were holding up immigration enforcement funding over the issue, while other critics worried it might be used to reward rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
During the hearing on Tuesday, Blanche said his department would not move forward with the fund regardless of the outcomes of future court hearings.
“OK, well, we will work with you and hold you to it,” Meng said.
Sign up for Here's The Deal with Lisa Desjardins
Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters
PBS News podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app
Find more from PBS News at
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
