NEW: Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges Sue to Dissolve the $1.8B "Weaponization" Slush Fund

This is the first lawsuit to block Trump, Blanche, and Bessent from creating the fund to compensate insurrectionists and Trump's criminal co-conspirators. But do the plaintiffs have standing?

By now you’re aware of Todd Blanche setting up a $1.8B slush fund to pay reparations to white supremacists, insurrectionists, and criminal co-conspirators involved in the January 6th attack on the capitol and the attempt to thwart the peaceful transfer of power in 2021.

The fund is purportedly a “settlement” agreement between Trump and the IRS pursuant to Donald’s $10B lawsuit against the agency he controls, seeking compensation for the unauthorized release of his tax returns (despite the IRS releasing the tax returns of over 400K other people.)

But this is not a settlement.

Donald unilaterally dropped his law suit on the eve of briefs coming due to explain how the courts even had jurisdiction to resolve a case where Trump controlled both sides of the suit. The judge closed the case, but noted that because there were no settlement terms outlined in the notice to the court, there is no settlement of record. That makes this “weaponization” fund nothing more than theft of taxpayer money without appropriations from Congress and without a court order.

For the past week, I’ve been discussing the fund, and hoping someone would have standing to sue to stop it. Today, former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan PD officer Daniel Hodges filed suit in the federal district court for the District of Columbia to dissolve the fund.

In it, their lawyers Brendan Ballou and Samuel T. Ward-Packard argue that Dunn and Hodges do have standing:

The Anti-Weaponization Fund is inflicting and will continue to inflict cognizable injuries on Plaintiffs.

By creating the Anti-Weaponization Fund, funding it, and authorizing claim criteria that will allow it to make payments to, among others, Proud Boys and January 6 rioters, Defendants have inflicted concrete and cognizable harms on Plaintiffs Dunn and Hodges.

The Fund’s mere existence sends a clear and chilling message: those who enact violence in President Trump’s name will not just avoid punishment, they will be rewarded with riches. That message, by itself, substantially increases the already sizeable risk of vigilante violence Dunn and Hodges face on a near-daily basis. And it encourages those who are harassing Dunn and Hodges, and sending them death threats, to up the ante.

These concrete, imminent injuries, which Defendants have caused, give Plaintiffs standing.

And if and when the Fund begins making payments, Plaintiffs’ injuries will compound. In particular, if the rioters who have already accosted Plaintiffs in person on several occasions receive even a fraction of the $1.7 billion, the danger to Plaintiffs is enormous.

Payments from the Fund will be used to finance the operations of those who have threatened and tried to kill Plaintiffs. The rioters and paramilitaries who tried to kill Dunn and Hodges on January 6, and who continue to threaten them today, need money for their operations. The January 6 rioters had caches of guns, pepper and bear spray, body armor, tactical gear, and communications equipment. Such sophisticated equipment is expensive to obtain and maintain.

Accordingly, many rioters, including members of paramilitary groups, fundraised for their operations before and after January 6, and continue to do so today. Crowdfunding by rioters and their supporters since January 6 has raised at least $5.3 million. And Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes received donations as recently as May 16, 2026. The Fund will make render such fundraising far easier, supplementing online crowdfunding with public financing out of a confidential $1.7 billion slush fund.

Earlier this year, on the fifth anniversary of January 6, Enrique Tarrio said that “[t]he thing that I’m searching for is retribution, retaliation.” After briefly disclaiming violence, Tarrio added, “I want them to pay. They made an example out of us, and we need to make an example out of them.”

Compensating rioters like Tarrio through the Anti-Weaponization Fund will encourage them to seek that retribution, and furnish them with the resources to bring it about.

It will be up to the courts to determine whether the plaintiffs have standing. I will keep you posted.

You can read the entire lawsuit here.

Associated Press