The $1.776b Slush Fund Isn't As Dead As Senators Cornyn And Tillis Seem To Be Willing To Believe

MS NOW’s Mychael Schnell reported Monday morning that “Overnight: A spokesperson for Sen. John Cornyn confirms there’s a deal w/ DOJ on anti-weaponization fund and IRS audit immunity. If all goes smoothly from here, Blanche should have enough support to advance from Judiciary Committee.”

Tuesday morning, the committee is scheduled to vote on Blanche’s nomination, and it appears he’ll get through. But nothing has really changed. Blanche held a faux-meeting with Epstein survivors and wrote some chicken scratch on a piece of paper about the slush fund that does nothing to erase Trump’s ability to reward his January 6 supporters, not to mention secure tax forgiveness and protection from future investigation for his entire family.

But Schnell quoted from Cornyn’s spokesperson: “Sen. Cornyn has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice, which will be issuing a formal order permanently terminating the anti-weaponization fund and making 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.”

This is the same Justice Department that has made so many misrepresentations and false statements in court over the last year and a half that judges are openly questioning whether its lawyers can be trusted. Despite all of that, Todd Blanche’s word is good enough for the senator whom Trump all but ousted by endorsing his Republican primary opponent. Last week, the senator showed signs of having some backbone. He seemed to understand how deeply flawed the nominee for attorney general was and appeared to be looking for a way to avoid voting for him. But now, he’s willing to bend the knee.

By late Monday morning, Schnell was back with more reporting: “Cornyn and Tillis are out with a joint statement throwing support behind Todd Blanche for AG. They point to the agreement with DOJ on the anti-weaponization fund and IRS audit immunity. ‘we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon.’”

Put not your trust in princes, as the psalms say.

Don’t put it in the Justice Department either, because no matter what Todd Blanche says, the document Cornyn called an “order” (DOJ doesn’t issue those, judges do) can’t keep Trump from using taxpayer money to benefit his allies, including convicted-then-pardoned January 6 defendants, and it doesn’t even purport to undo the “settlement agreement” that gives Trump and family immunity from criminal investigations and paying owed taxes.

Remember that part? We discussed it back in late May when that document first surfaced. I wrote to you, “There is corruption. And then there is the second Trump administration.” Nothing we’ve seen since has altered that view.

That piece can be found here, and it’s worth revisiting if you have time after getting caught up on today’s developments.

Blanche happened to be testifying before the Senate when the whole slush fund deal came to light. He had this exchange with Delaware Senator Chris Coons at the time:

Coons: Has it ever happened that a sitting president sued his own government for $10 billion dollars and then directed the settlement of the case and the establishment of a payout fund?

Blanche: No, but there’s a lot of things that President Trump is the first of.

And now we have another first. Blanche tweeted out this new supposed agreement at 11:09 pm Sunday night. The New York Times reported that “the Justice Department committed in writing to abandoning elements of a deal it struck with President Trump to resolve his lawsuit against the I.R.S.”

There are two separate documents, shown below. They were not filed in the court proceeding because the judge had already ruled that the settlement was collusive and barred Trump from invoking the deal he cut for himself in any official proceedings. Instead, they’re simply statements issued on the attorney general’s letterhead. They aren’t signed agreements with the Trumps, which means the family could still claim it is entitled to the original bargain. And there’s nothing preventing Blanche from changing his mind. There is no binding court order. This deal is, quite literally, not worth the paper it’s printed on.

One signed memo says DOJ is formally rescinding the order that created the slush fund. A separate, unsigned statement discusses “a mutual release of claims”—from the case Judge Williams in Florida found was tantamount to a fraud on the court—before saying virtually nothing. It simply states that Trump’s forgiveness applies only “retroactively,” meaning to all outstanding tax debt and to any investigation, including a criminal investigation, arising from related conduct.

Nothing suggests desperation about the upcoming confirmation vote quite like the attorney general of the United States, who has m-i-n-i-o-n-s, drafting letters that shouldn’t have pacified anyone, let alone two United States senators, and sending them out into the Twitterverse himself just before midnight on a Sunday night.

Here are Blanche’s twin offerings to the senators:

…and this…

California Senator Adam Schiff made plain that this is meaningless. Nothing here prevents future payouts to insurrectionists or anyone else Trump decides to reward in the future. And Trump has handed himself freedom from paying taxes, at least up to and including the big year he had last year with crypto and all. It sure looks like a kingship, crowned by the man who wants to be attorney general.

The irony is that Blanche has underscored the reasons that he shouldn’t be confirmed: He is willfully running interference for Trump, yet again. That’s something no one who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution should do, least of all the attorney general of the United States.

Trump himself abandoned the slush fund. We know Blanche didn’t make this move without consulting the White House. That’s because it was never really about the slush fund. It was always about the immunity deal, and Blanche leaves that in place.

The corruption of the Department of Justice by the president is all but complete. The man who enabled it is about to clear the committee and head to the Senate floor for a vote to become the next attorney general. That’s his reward. Our job now is to start talking to our senators, especially Republican senators, about refusing to sign off on this. That goes double for senators facing tough reelection races. (I’m looking at you, Susan Collins.)

But this is about more than that. It’s a moral moment for the Republican Party that long billed itself as the party of morality, and so much more so than Democrats. If you’re against corruption and for the rule of law, then it should be easy to vote no on Todd Blanche. If you vote for him after all of this, then you own the consequences of that choice.

Today’s developments answered one question: Todd Blanche was willing to scramble at the last minute to secure the votes he needed. We’ll keep following this, even after the spotlight goes away, to see if his promises hold up or if they’re as thin as they appear to be. Blanche’s Committee vote won’t be the end of this story, just the beginning.

We’re in this together,

Joyce