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Todd Blanche has scrapped plans for a $1.8bn so-called slush fund in an effort to secure a permanent promotion as US attorney-general after two Republicans threatened to block his nomination over the matter.
The Department of Justice said late on Sunday it had rescinded an order that had established a fund for individuals who had “suffered weaponisation and lawfare”, according to a post on X by Blanche, who is currently acting attorney-general.
The “anti-weaponisation fund” was set up in May in exchange for President Donald Trump and his family dropping a $10bn lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over a leak of the president’s tax returns. It had unleashed fierce bipartisan pushback and derailed Blanche’s fraught Senate confirmation.
The DoJ had cast the controversial fund as an opportunity for victims of purported political weaponisation to seek payouts and formal apologies from the government.
Less than two weeks after the DoJ set up the fund, Blanche told lawmakers that the administration would not be moving forward with the plan, as Democrats and some Republicans panned the fund as an abuse of executive power.
But Republican senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina insisted they needed written assurances that the fund would not be revived, forcing the postponement last week of a judiciary committee vote on confirming Blanche as attorney-general.
Trump suggested last week that he could withdraw Blanche’s nomination and resubmit it when Cornyn and Tillis were out of office.
Blanche could indefinitely fulfil the duties of the attorney-general in an acting capacity, though a failure to secure his pick’s confirmation as top law enforcer would be an embarrassment for Trump.
In a statement posted by Blanche on X on Sunday, the DoJ said that “today’s Order officially rescinds” the anti-weaponisation fund.
It added that the original order setting up the fund “only has any effect . . . on the named parties in the lawsuit” from which it originated.
The move clears the way for a confirmation vote for Blanche by the Senate’s judiciary committee that was rescheduled for Tuesday.
The anti-weaponisation fund originated from a lawsuit filed by Trump against the IRS in January, demanding billions of dollars in compensation for the leak of his tax records by convicted IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn six years ago.
As part of a settlement proposed by the DoJ under Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, taxpayer money would be used to distribute the $1.8bn fund without the involvement of Congress. Trump has said he “wasn’t involved in the whole creation of it”.
According to a statement by Cornyn’s spokesperson, the senator had “reached an agreement” with the DoJ to “permanently” end the fund and make “clear in a binding written document that the scope of the audit settlement is limited to only the plaintiffs, including the President, and the IRS”.
Source:
www.ft.com
