Blanche agrees to help kill weaponization fund in nomination bid
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has told senators he will support legislation that would ban the creation of a $1.8 billion government weapons fund in an apparent concession to gain support from lawmakers skeptical of his appointment as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Administrative Matters
Blanche is determined to help draft this law in a hearing held Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on President Donald Trump’s appointment as attorney general. The fund to compensate victims of alleged government gunfire is part of a broader settlement to resolve a $10 billion lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS over his 2019 tax leak.
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn asked if there was a written agreement to amend the agreement to ensure that the weapons fund could not continue.
“I’ve talked a lot with you and my colleagues about the possibility of an audit so there’s no weapons account, which is definitely something that can be done,” Blanche said. “We’re fine with that.”
In response to strong political and public opposition, Blanche previously said the fund, which was set at $1.776 billion, would not go ahead. However, while answering questions from members of the Senate, Blanche admitted that Trump and his lawyers may try to revive the account by claiming that the Department of Justice violated the agreement.
“I want to stick a fork in this turkey of the 1776 bill,” Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said during the hearing. Tillis said the Senate Appropriations Committee is already working on language to officially kill the fund.
Meanwhile, Cornyn has led criticism of a part of the settlement that shields Trump and his family from past investigations, although there has been no talk of drafting legislation to prevent that provision from continuing.
In a dramatic moment, Blanche said he didn’t know who at the Justice Department wrote the language protecting him from tax audits, even though he signed the document.
Election nomination
Senators questioned whether Blanche could operate without Trump, whom he previously represented in criminal cases while in private practice.
“I’m his lawyer — he’s his lawyer,” Blanche said at one point during the hearing.
While the question was raised at times, Blanche mostly remained calm and Tillis praised him for his work. Blanche could not get Republicans on the caucus to vote against his nomination in the final election. The members of the Democratic Party in the committee expressed their solidarity in voting against his election.
Cornyn said after the hearing he still hasn’t made up his mind and won’t make up his mind until after the election.
“When he says the gun account is dead, I don’t believe it, and some people might disagree,” Cornyn said. “It is a very difficult thing for a person to be the president’s lawyer, then to be a member of the executive council and the president can fire him today if he wants to. I think in the matter of the tax issue, they are very inclined to support the president.”
Tillis said after the hearing that he believes that if Blanche supports the Senate to count the loss of the weapons storage fund, this indicates that the Trump administration is also in favor of doing so.
Questions Senator
Blanche was criticized during the hearing for his decision to support Trump and his allies.
Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, a Democrat on the committee, said “in less than 18 months at the Justice Department, you have shown that you are still President Trump’s lawyer.”
Senators also focused on the work of former special counsel Jack Smith. Blanche said the Justice Department is investigating whether Smith obtained and shared the contents of the memos from members of the Senate during his investigation into Trump’s activities.
Smith was appointed by former Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump’s attempt to cancel the 2020 presidential election and his handling of classified information. All of these cases were overturned when Trump was elected to his second term.
Blanche credits his work at the DOJ to reducing murder and crime, deporting illegal immigrants and prosecuting fraud. He blamed his predecessors in the Ministry of Justice for betraying the public’s faith in justice.
“The members of this committee – from both parties – have good questions about the debates that have taken place this past year, and I welcome them,” Blanche said. “Above all, we are restoring the confidence of the United States.”
