The Trump “Anti-Weaponization Fund” — the $1.776 billion slush fund the DOJ announced in May without congressional authorization, to pay out Trump allies including January 6 rioters, administered by Trump’s personal lawyer turned Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, potentially including a pardoned child molester — is, as of this writing, dead. Probably.
The fund has been indefinitely blocked by Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, who remains unimpressed by the Trump administration’s assurances that the whole thing is moot. She’s not taking Blanche’s un-sworn word for it, noting that his statements, and Trump’s, for that matter, have not been made under penalty of perjury. This matters because Blanche told House lawmakers the fund was finished (“We’re not moving forward with the fund, period”), while Trump, asked the same question the following day, told reporters “I don’t know.” A different judge, D.C.’s Richard Leon, accepted the mootness argument in a parallel case (with a pointed warning, “Don’t play possum with this court”). But Judge Brinkema is not gambling on this administration’s good faith, and frankly, who could blame her.
But Politico uncovered an additional wrinkle to this mess: Patrick Davis, the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs — i.e., the DOJ official whose job was to sell the slush fund to Congress — quietly told colleagues in May that he intended to file a personal claim against the fund and asked to recuse himself from related work because he saw it as a conflict.
The conflict stems from Davis’s prior life as Sen. Chuck Grassley’s senior aide. During the Russiagate investigation, Davis’s phone and email records were subpoenaed, something he only discovered years later. He told the New York Times in 2024 that it “felt like a violation, not simply on a personal level, but more importantly of the separation of powers given the nature of our oversight work.”
Alright, calm down. Davis’s records were subpoenaed, meaning a judge signed off on the whole thing. Judges approve millions of subpoenas a year that don’t result in fat paydays for those whose records were sought. But the Anti-Weaponization Fund was only really about vibes and the belief that anything that ever made a Trump ally uncomfortable was an abuse of government power deserving taxpayer-funded restitution. Under that standard, Davis presumably qualifies.
The problem, as his colleagues noted, is that Davis was the person responsible for explaining the fund to the senators, which made his sudden desire to recuse himself and potentially collect from it noteworthy. “[Davis] has relationships with the senators, and it was a very tough time for him to back out,” one administration official told Politico. “In a very fraught moment, with legislative affairs and stuff with the Hill, DOJ needed to have the head of leg affairs involved.”
A second official was less charitable, suggesting the recusal request was more about conflict-avoidance than conflict-of-interest: “It was a hard issue and he just didn’t want to deal with it and didn’t want to be there to address the difficult conversations. The thing was a cop-out.”
A DOJ spokesperson told Politico that Davis temporarily recused himself “out of an abundance of caution” and that after internal consultation it was decided “recusal was not necessary for a number of reasons.”
So the DOJ official tapped to defend a legally dubious slush fund to Congress tried to bail on those conversations because he was planning to cash in on the same fund. You almost have to appreciate the efficiency of the self-dealing.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
The post Top DOJ Official Wanted A Cut Of The Trump Slush Fund appeared first on Above the Law.
The Trump “Anti-Weaponization Fund” — the $1.776 billion slush fund the DOJ announced in May without congressional authorization, to pay out Trump allies including January 6 rioters, administered by Trump’s personal lawyer turned Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, potentially including a pardoned child molester — is, as of this writing, dead. Probably.
The fund has been indefinitely blocked by Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, who remains unimpressed by the Trump administration’s assurances that the whole thing is moot. She’s not taking Blanche’s un-sworn word for it, noting that his statements, and Trump’s, for that matter, have not been made under penalty of perjury. This matters because Blanche told House lawmakers the fund was finished (“We’re not moving forward with the fund, period”), while Trump, asked the same question the following day, told reporters “I don’t know.” A different judge, D.C.’s Richard Leon, accepted the mootness argument in a parallel case (with a pointed warning, “Don’t play possum with this court”). But Judge Brinkema is not gambling on this administration’s good faith, and frankly, who could blame her.
But Politico uncovered an additional wrinkle to this mess: Patrick Davis, the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs — i.e., the DOJ official whose job was to sell the slush fund to Congress — quietly told colleagues in May that he intended to file a personal claim against the fund and asked to recuse himself from related work because he saw it as a conflict.
The conflict stems from Davis’s prior life as Sen. Chuck Grassley’s senior aide. During the Russiagate investigation, Davis’s phone and email records were subpoenaed, something he only discovered years later. He told the New York Times in 2024 that it “felt like a violation, not simply on a personal level, but more importantly of the separation of powers given the nature of our oversight work.”
Alright, calm down. Davis’s records were subpoenaed, meaning a judge signed off on the whole thing. Judges approve millions of subpoenas a year that don’t result in fat paydays for those whose records were sought. But the Anti-Weaponization Fund was only really about vibes and the belief that anything that ever made a Trump ally uncomfortable was an abuse of government power deserving taxpayer-funded restitution. Under that standard, Davis presumably qualifies.
The problem, as his colleagues noted, is that Davis was the person responsible for explaining the fund to the senators, which made his sudden desire to recuse himself and potentially collect from it noteworthy. “[Davis] has relationships with the senators, and it was a very tough time for him to back out,” one administration official told Politico. “In a very fraught moment, with legislative affairs and stuff with the Hill, DOJ needed to have the head of leg affairs involved.”
A second official was less charitable, suggesting the recusal request was more about conflict-avoidance than conflict-of-interest: “It was a hard issue and he just didn’t want to deal with it and didn’t want to be there to address the difficult conversations. The thing was a cop-out.”
A DOJ spokesperson told Politico that Davis temporarily recused himself “out of an abundance of caution” and that after internal consultation it was decided “recusal was not necessary for a number of reasons.”
So the DOJ official tapped to defend a legally dubious slush fund to Congress tried to bail on those conversations because he was planning to cash in on the same fund. You almost have to appreciate the efficiency of the self-dealing.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
