The order by US district judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia blocks the Trump administration from “taking any further action” to set up or operate the fund while the judge hears additional legal arguments.

The justice department announced the creation of an “Anti-Weaponisation Fund” last week as part of an agreement to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax records.

It set up a US$1.776 billion fund overseen by a five-member commission to dole out payments to those who they show they were victims of “lawfare” and “weaponisation,” terms Trump and his allies have used to describe investigations and criminal cases against them.

Friday’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a group who claimed to be targeted “by the Trump-Vance administration as ideological or political opponents” and alleged they would be ineligible for payouts from the fund.

The fund spurred a backlash, even from some lawmakers in Trump’s Republican Party, who expressed anger that some people who attacked the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, would receive taxpayer-funded payouts.