When Todd Blanche declared in June that the Trump administration's "anti-weaponization fund" was "not moving forward" (NBC News), he was still serving as acting U.S. attorney general, awaiting confirmation by the U.S. Senate to take over the post on a permanent basis. But according to legal reporter Fallon Gallagher of MS NOW, Trump officials haven't "forgotten" about the $1.8 billion fund and remain "still fighting to keep it alive."

MAGA Republicans have described the fund as a way to compensate people they claim were wrongly prosecuted under former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland during the Biden administration. Critics, by contrast, attacked it as a "slush fund," arguing that taxpayer money would go to Trump supporters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

Reporting for MS NOW, Gallagher warns that although the fund "has largely faded from headlines," the Trump administration "hasn't forgotten" about it.

"The fight is returning to federal court in Virginia on Friday," Gallagher writes. "U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema is set to hear arguments over the government's bid to dismiss the most successful legal challenge to the fund. This is the same judge who blocked the fund indefinitely in June. When Brinkema blocked the fund, she gave the government an opportunity to declare — under penalty of perjury — that it would not move forward with the fund in any way, shape or form in the future. If they did that, she indicated she would likely dismiss the case."

Gallagher continues, "The government did not file that declaration. But on Friday, the Justice Department will ask the same judge to dismiss the case, the exact thing the judge likely would have done had the government filed it in response the first time she requested it. This feels like a case of — to use a movie quote — 'so, you're telling me there's a chance?'"

The stakes of Friday's arguments are considerable. The fund remains blocked under Brinkema's June order, and the Justice Department has so far declined to file the declaration she requested — meaning the case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia will hinge on whether she grants the government's dismissal bid or allows the challenge to proceed, with the ultimate fate of the $1.8 billion program left unresolved in the meantime.

The legal challenge was brought by Democracy Forward, a nonprofit legal organization, whose president, Skye Perryman, said she is certain that Trump and his allies haven't given up on the fund.

"It's very clear that this administration had no interest in halting the fund," Perryman told MS NOW. "They have halted the fund because of the court order that's in place blocking the fund. This administration continues to try to avoid accountability from the courts and from the people, which is why they're trying to move to dismiss a case about something that is clearly unlawful and something that's very unpopular. That is their MO, is to try to dismiss cases in order to avoid accountability."