DOJ new slush fund move amounts to telling federal judge 'to go pound sand': legal expert

The Department of Justice is refusing to swear that the Trump slush fund is dead in a new court filing flagged by a legal analyst.Last week, federal judge Leonie Brinkema indefinitely blocked the 1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund, which critics worried would have paid Trump allies, and gave the DOJ until June 19th to file a declaration swearing it wouldn't move forward with the fund under penalty of perjury.DOJ lawyer Andrew Block submitted a new court filing on June 19th, but not the one the judge instructed, not the one that she wanted, Legal AF host Michael Popok said in an update.Instead, the DOJ created a new piece of paper to effectively go tell the judge to go pound sand, Popok said, also describing it as a Go F yourself submission.Brinkema wanted the signatures of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward on that declaration, the three people who created the anti-weaponization fund, Popok noted.According to the filing, a declaration not to move forward with the slush fund is unnecessary and the compelled testimony of senior officials from the Executive Branch implicates serious separation of powers concerns.It goes on to argue, The Acting Attorney General has testified before Congress that the Fund is 'not going forward, period.'That should be enough, right? Popok joked. Judge Brinkema said a version of, yeah, we're in a courtroom. You need to bring in evidence. We operate on evidence and testimony, not on statements made outside the courtroom.Trump Squeals and Has AG Blanche Refuse to Testify to Federal Judge! by Legal AFRead on Substack