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Todd Blanche issues formal order terminating measure widely derided as a ‘slush fund’, in move that could clear path for his nomination as attorney general
Acting US attorney general Todd Blanche issued a formal order late on Sunday terminating Donald Trump’s $1.8bn “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate his political allies, a move that follows weeks of negotiations with two Republican senators who were blocking his nomination to become attorney general.
While Blanche has repeatedly said publicly that the fund was dead, the justice department had resisted formally confirming that in writing. That had drawn concern from lawmakers that it could be revived in some form, especially after Trump expressed continued support for the idea.
A spokesperson for Texas Senator John Cornyn, one of the senators holding up Blanche’s nomination, confirmed the agreement. The other GOP senator, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, did not have immediate comment.
The bar already is too low for this to mean anything. A judge has blocked the proposed settlement already, so it’s insanely suspicious that Trump was willing to withdraw Blanche if necessary to not give up the settlement in writing.
Two huge problems that probably make this worthless despite that it almost certainly will satisfy the GOP holdouts:
Now they have produced an “order,” but it’s not even clear what legal effect it has or why it can’t be replaced with a new “order” reinstating it. The DOJ can’t issue a court order and it’s redundant to the court order. So it must be an internal order and if the DOJ has the power to issue it, it has the power to revoke it.
There is still a retroactive immunity! How this is never in the headlines, is just a reflection of how they’ve successfully poisoned the conversation. Here’s the article:
I doubt “claims open at the time of the settlement” is genuinely limiting. So the president and his entire family gratuitously get exactly what they wanted, a free criminal immunity for their fraudulent tax returns. The prospective immunity was never going to be held up in court anyway.
Blanche is Trump’s personal attorney. Not was, is. Just like Bondi. Cornyn and Tillis did this so they can lie to themselves that they had a backbone, that’s all.
After what Trump did to Cornyn and Tillis, I don’t understand why they’d vote for ANYTHING he wants. And given that his attempted manipulation might result in both seats flipping, I didn’t know why any MAGA would support him either.
If either of those seats flip, it will be as a direct result of Trump’s interference, and if I was a Senate MAGA, I’d stop supporting Trump entirely.
That would make sense, but it’s just as likely they are thinking about life after the Senate.
If their only marketable associations are via the GOP, if the GOP has become MAGA, and if they are exiled from MAGA-ified GOP, then they may still be trying to look like they weren’t really opposed to Trump because it’ll help them nab that Fox News correspondent spot, that speaking engagement, that cushy lobbying firm role.
I get that, but there’s also a lot of money to be made as a MAGA critic from the right. Chris Christie is doing pretty good with that, so are others. It’s the new trend, and they should jump on it. It might literally save them someday.
The atomic-scale upside to this, is that immunity is just as worthless as this is, once trump is out of office.