Todd Blanche's Confirmation Statement on DOJ 'Slush Fund' and Tax Immunity Draws Criticism

Republican senators appeared satisfied with Todd Blanche’s last-ditch effort to save his confirmation as attorney general with a fresh statement clarifying what will happen to what critics called a “slush fund” for Donald Trump’s allies and the president’s immunity from tax investigations.

But Blanche’s statement is inviting more questions than answers, with “laughably flimsy” language that could open the door for other corrupt bargains between the president and his former criminal defense attorney, who is now poised to lead the Department of Justice, according to Democratic critics and legal experts.

Blanche’s statement rescinds an order creating the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which “shall have no force or effect,” and “establishes, beyond any reasonable doubt, that there is no Fund.”

But the statement does not say whether a similar fund could be created in the future, or if the Justice Department will use existing channels to issue taxpayer-funded payouts to the president’s allies, including January 6 rioters.

Blanche also issued a brief statement to clarify the scope of a deal that granted Trump, his family members and their businesses immunity from existing IRS investigations. But his unsigned press release is an “interpretation” of an order he issued on May 19, opening up more questions about Blanche's legal authority to make such a deal.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat House Judiciary Committee, said Blanche’s “hollow” and “laughably flimsy” language is “an affront to the American people, Congress and the Courts.”

The statement is “clearly designed” to give Republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis “a false sense that their legitimate concerns have been addressed while leaving Blanche’s corrupt scheme fully intact,” according to Raskin.

“Todd Blanche now wants the Senate to believe these half-baked and illusory ‘assurances’ have somehow solved the problem,” he said. “They have not.”

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee alongside Cornyn and Tillis, said the deal “doesn’t prevent payouts to violent insurrectionists in the future” nor does it prevent the administration from “bringing the slush fund back from the dead next week or using DOJ’s Judgment Fund for the same illicit purpose.”

While Blanche publicly claims to have rescinded the fund, he has refused to provide sworn statements in federal court stating that it will not operate in the future. His statement called lawsuits challenging the fund “frivolous.”

The latest statement also maintains an order, signed by Blanche in the wake of a lawsuit Trump filed against his own administration, that protects the Trump family from tax investigations.

Blanche merely clarified that the order applies only to the “named parties in the lawsuit,” meaning Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization.

His document also states that Trump is immune only from ongoing audits of past tax returns, not future ones, none of which was previously in dispute.

The deal is “clearly a face-saving exercise to try to get the Senators to ‘yes’ on that nomination, not real limitations on pro-Trump cronyism,” according to Lisa Gilbert, co-president of government watchdog group Public Citizen, which has launched several lawsuits against the administration.

“All this agreement does is withdraw an indefensible order that Blanche himself helped create, while leaving extraordinary tax protections for his former client largely intact,” said Traci Feit Love, founder and executive director of Lawyers for Good Government. “If this is all the Senate holdouts were seeking, their standards are far too low.”