A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to name who came up with the dead $1.8 billion fund. Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis of the Eastern District of Virginia issued the order. The money came from a deal settling Trump's $10 billion IRS suit. It would have paid people who say they were targeted for politics, perhaps including pardoned Jan. 6 defendants. Discovery goes on in Democracy Forward's suit.
Catch up
- Aug. 4 — Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche scrapped the fund meant to pay people claiming political targeting by federal investigators.
- Aug. 8 — The Senate confirmed Blanche as attorney general, 50–49, with Cassidy the decisive vote and Murkowski joining Collins in opposition.
- Aug. 16 — Blanche declined on two Sunday shows to promise the Justice Department would act independently of the White House.
- Fund size: $1.8 billion of the $10 billion IRS lawsuit settlement, scrapped by Attorney General Todd Blanche in early August.
- Davis on the order: "Who came up with it? That's what conception means."
- Democracy Forward: "a significant step in getting to the bottom of the slush fund."