Credible open source funds .. OpenSats is such a fund (https://opensats.org/about). I believe at least several of the Board members are probably known to you.
Two others are:
- Human Rights Foundation (HRF) and
- Brink
Each has a slightly different focus and all 3 are supporting open source and privacy and developers.
Specifically for legal defense, COPA is probably the main player, and also well supported in the US, BUT also has significant corporate/regulated sponsors so may be less likely to support such a direct challenge.