Todd Blanche wants to be attorney general. And the Senate just gave him a big step forward based on a promise that isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Funny how that works.
Here’s the deal. Blanche, who is currently acting AG and was Trump’s personal lawyer before that, had a problem. Two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, were holding up his confirmation over Trump’s “anti-weaponization fund.” That’s the $1.7 billion pot of taxpayer money that would get handed out to Trump’s friends and associates who claim they were politically persecuted. The same settlement also shields Trump, his family, and his businesses from IRS audits worth over $100 million. Ask yourself who benefits from that.
So Blanche sat down with Cornyn and Tillis for two weeks of private meetings, and came out with a written commitment to rescind the settlement. The senators put out statements declaring victory. The committee voted 12-10 along party lines to send the nomination to the full Senate. Everybody happy, right?
Ryan M. Biller, U.S. Department of Justice (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsHere’s what nobody is telling you. The memo isn’t legally binding. Blanche himself admitted it during his hearing last month. Trump’s attorneys “could try to enforce the contract,” Blanche said. They can’t force DOJ to kill the fund, but “they could potentially say, I suppose, that we breached the contract by not moving forward.” That’s not a concession. That’s a loophole with a bow on it.
Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, put it plainly: walking back the agreement requires Trump’s okay. Blanche cannot just unilaterally declare the Department’s obligations are gone. The plaintiff has to sign off. And the plaintiff is Donald Trump.
So did Trump sign off? Twenty-four hours before Blanche unveiled his written statement, Trump posted on Truth Social that he would “push hard” to get the anti-weaponization fund established through legislation. “It will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done.” That doesn’t sound like a man who agreed to let his $1.7 billion slush fund die. That sounds like a man who let his nominee sign a piece of paper to get past two outgoing senators, knowing he can resurrect the whole thing whenever he feels like it.
Shealeah Craighead (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsAnd Cornyn and Tillis? They’re on their way out. Trump endorsed their opponents. They held up the nomination for three weeks, got a memo that means nothing, and now they get to tell voters they stood up to the president. The swamp specializes in this kind of theater. Everybody gets a headline. Nobody gets accountability.
Rep. Grace Meng put it as well as anyone: “The underlying lawsuit is still active, the President never signed off, and he’s already said he’d revive the fund the moment the pressure lets up. The IRS protections for his family remain untouched. Nothing about the deal that matters most to the President has actually changed.”
Meanwhile, Blanche got on a call with the anti-abortion group Intercessors for America and promised that a DOJ under his control would prioritize restrictions on medication abortion. “Victory will be soon, and victory will be permanent,” he told them. That’s not the language of an independent attorney general. That’s the language of a man who knows who hired him.
Senate Judiciary Committee (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsNow the full Senate vote is the next test. Susan Collins says she’s voting no. Bill Cassidy is undecided. Lisa Murkowski is “still deliberating.” Mitch McConnell has been gone for two months with medical issues. If three Republicans break, Blanche is done.
But ask yourself: when was the last time three Senate Republicans actually broke on anything that matters to this president? They’ll hem and haw, maybe one or two will vote no for the cameras, and the rest will fall in line. They always do. The little guy gets the bill. The connected get the protection. And the Senate calls it oversight.