Republican Senator Bill Cassidy has joined his Democratic colleague, Cory Booker, in a court filing to block President Trump’s so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”Cassidy and Booker filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit against the fund, alleging that it goes against the Constitution by making “an end-run around Congress’s institutional authority” and violating the spending, appropriations, and appointments clauses.The senators’ brief points out that despite a federal judge temporarily blocking the fund last week, Trump refused to say it was dead in a podcast interview earlier this week. They attacked the origin of the fund, Trump’s excessively favorable settlement with the IRS following his lawsuit against the agency after his tax returns were leaked (during his own first term).“Because the very lawsuit that sparked the settlement was collusive and therefore could not be heard in a federal court, and accordingly no monetary award would have been available through that collusive litigation, the Judgment Fund is not available,” the brief states.It’s another anti-Trump move from Cassidy following his primary election loss last month to Representative Julia Letlow, who had the president’s endorsement. Cassidy has also taken aim at Trump’s ballroom and his choice of Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence. But the only reason he appears to be showing courage now is because he’ll be out of a job by next year.That seems to be one of the few things that gets Republicans to criticize Trump: when he withdraws his support and ends their careers. Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a staunch MAGA acolyte, reportedly turned on Trump after he didn’t back her running for the Senate. But this effort from Cassidy at least carries some weight, and could help kill Trump’s slush fund in court.
