All posts tagged: 1.8B

Trump administration dropping DOJ’s .8B ‘lawfare’ fund

Trump administration dropping DOJ’s $1.8B ‘lawfare’ fund

Published by Sam Flores

The Trump administration plans to drop the Department of Justice’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” in the face of legal and political pushback to it, reports said Monday. The fund was created as part of a settlement of President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. It is intended to compensate people who were purportedly victims of prosecutorial overreach by the DOJ under the Biden administration. In addition to the DOJ creating the fund, the settlement included an agreement that protected Trump and his family members from any enforcement actions, including audits, related to their tax filings made before the deal was announced. Reports that the fund was being put on ice came after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., met with Trump at the White House about the fund. “I do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Monday. US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of …

Defense tech darling Mach Industries hits .8B valuation, a 4x jump in a year

Defense tech darling Mach Industries hits $1.8B valuation, a 4x jump in a year

Published by skeptic

Mach Industries, the three-year-old defense tech startup run by 22-year-old founder and CEO Ethan Thornton, has raised a $300 million Series C at a $1.8 billion valuation, the company announced on Monday. The raise nearly quadruples the valuation of the company in a year. In June 2025, Mach raised $100 million at a $470 million valuation. Other investors include Bedrock Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Khosla Ventures. The round was led by deep tech fund Infinite Capital and Ribbit Capital, known for fintech and lately in hot deals everywhere — from AI coding startups like Cognition to neoclouds like Crusoe. Since building autonomous weapons is a capital-intensive industry, Thornton began actively fundraising a couple of months ago, he told TechCrunch, and quickly discovered that the round would be popular with investors. “We went out to raise 200 [million dollars] and we were extremely oversubscribed at 200 and happy with the price, so we decided to push up to 300. We’re still oversubscribed at the 300 mark,” Thornton said of the fundraising efforts. Founded in 2023, Mach …

Judge temporarily blocks Justice Department’s .8B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Judge temporarily blocks Justice Department’s $1.8B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Published by Sam Flores

A federal judge temporarily blocked the government from doling out money from President Trump’s new “anti-weaponization” fund Friday.  U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema indicated the pause is meant to ensure no money is “irreversibly disbursed” from the fund until she can rule on an emergency motion to block it.  “It is important that the status quo be maintained until plaintiffs’ pending Motion has been… Source link