After a federal judge issued an injunction on Friday blocking Donald Trump’s $1.776 billion fund to compensate his political allies and Jan. 6 rioters, independent journalist Allison Gill said that her phone was “blowing up” in her group chat.
In addition to her journalism, Allison Gill is one of the many plaintiffs challenging the fund in lawsuits from coast to coast, and legal analysts questioned whether any would have standing — that is, the legal right to sue.
She sued as an applicant for compensation from the fund, alleging that she was subjected to “lawfare” and “weaponization” when the Trump administration fired her from her Department of Veterans Affairs in retaliation for her “Mueller She Wrote” podcast.
Like her, the plaintiffs in the Virginia case alleged that Trump’s fund engages in viewpoint discrimination by design, by defining the representative conduct of “weaponization” as the abuse of government power by “Democrat elected officials.” That U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema found standing under the plaintiff’s legal theory could bode well for similar lawsuits.
So, what happens from here?
During the conversation at the top of this newsletter, we discuss the Trump Justice Department’s opportunity to lift the injunction by submitting a sworn declaration, the pending case in Florida and whether Trump’s audit relief may be in trouble next.
