Associate Attorney General Stan Woodward’s genius gambit to tell a federal judge to get bent is paying off bigly!
The former Trumpland lawyer turned dude-who’ll-put-his-name-on-the-DOJ’s-craziest-filings figured he’d checkmated Judge Leonie Brinkema, who’s been on the bench since he was in elementary school.
Spoiler alert: No.
AI Is Reshaping Legal Practice—But Tools Aren’t The Real Differentiator.
Explore the mindset, cultural shifts, and training strategies that define the AI‑savvy lawyer, revealing why human judgment, standardized competence, and integrated learning—not technology alone—will shape the future of the profession.
The judge is presiding over a lawsuit seeking to challenge Trump’s January 6 slush fund, spun up to “settle” his complaint against the IRS. On June 12, she enjoined any effort to operationalize the $1.8 billion fund by processing claims or disbursing money. But she gave the government a way to end the matter entirely:
ORDERED that, to avoid any further litigation in this civil action, defendants Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, Jr., and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent FILE a declaration under the penalty of perjury that they will not take any action to create or operate the Anti-Weaponization Fund, and that the AntiWeaponization Fund will not proceed in any manner, or under any name. If such a declaration is not filed by June 19, 2026, the Court will issue a Scheduling Order and require defendants to
file a responsive pleading by July 17, 2026;
The government could have filed the declarations. It could have filed a motion for reconsideration, objecting to the requirement, preferably before June 19. Instead, it decided to put two middle fingers up and slap Woodward’s name on it.
“Such declarations are unnecessary and the compelled testimony of senior officials from the Executive Branch implicates serious separation of powers concerns,” he huffed, waving vaguely in the direction of the apex doctrine, without offering to supply testimony of any less-senior officials.
Opus 2 Steps Up Its AI Game With Acquisition Of A Legal Tech Startup
With the addition of Uncover’s technology, the litigation software is delivering rapid innovation.
Woodward pointed to Acting AG Todd Blanche’s unsworn testimony before Congress, in which he pointedly refused to promise in writing that the slush fund would not be revived at some later date.
“Undersigned counsel have twice signed briefs reaffirming that ‘the Fund is not going forward,'” Woodward added. “And counsel for Defendants has twice said substantially the same thing in open court. All these statements were made against the backdrop of serious penalties for falsity.”
The two-page “notice” ended with an admonition that “the Court’s demands are unnecessary,” over Woodward’s name and his Senior Counsel Andrew Block’s signature.
Shockingly, this failed to do the trick.
Judge Brinkema noted that Woodward’s bluster about “serious penalties for falsity” substantially overstates the matter, since counsel are immune from criminal prosecution for statements made during litigation and Blanche pointedly refused to reduce his statements to writing.
“[D]efendants have neither been required to sit for depositions (although they may now become subject to that process during discovery proceedings),” Judge Brinkema added in response to Woodward’s inapposite apex doctrine argument.
And Trump’s constant public statements refusing to permanently disavow the fund didn’t help either.
“On the record before this Court, the President and Acting Attorney General Blanche’s continued interest in compensating alleged victims of alleged government weaponization, the defendants’ unwillingness to provide declarations under the penalty of perjury, and Acting Attorney General Blanche’s refusal to rescind the May 18, 2026 memo, which set up the structure of the Fund, all support the conclusion that this civil action is not moot,” she concluded, directing the clerk to schedule briefing.
In short, the slush fund may or may not be dead. But thanks to Woodward’s shenanigans, the lawsuit to block it is very much alive.
Liz Dye produces the Law and Chaos Substack and podcast. You can subscribe by clicking the logo:
