Federal judge in the United States indefinitely halts Trump's $1.8 billion compensation fund.

On Friday local time, a federal judge indefinitely halted the $1.8 billion fund proposed by President Donald Trump. Despite claims from officials at the Department of Justice that work on the fund had been paused, related litigation is still ongoing. At a hearing in the federal court in Virginia, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the fund from being established. The Trump administration had planned to establish this fund to compensate individuals who claimed they were subjected to government investigations unfairly. The judge decisively rejected the government's argument that "this case is now moot," citing reasons including Trump's continued public praise for the fund concept and Acting Attorney General Todd Branch's refusal to commit to not restarting the fund under the threat of perjury charges. She demanded that the U.S. government submit a clear and definitive written statement to the court within a week, declaring the fund completely obsolete, and said she would consider dismissing the case at that time. A lawyer for the Department of Justice argued that, as an officer of the court, he had submitted documents to Judge Brinkema explaining that the fund had not been established and was no longer being pursued. However, Brinkema believed this was not enough and explicitly stated that the statement must be co-signed by the Treasury Secretary and Branch in order for her to accept the government's claim of permanently abandoning the fund. She said, "We cannot be 100% sure that this fund will not be launched again."