Todd Blanche Pinky Swears The $1.8 Billion J6 Slush Fund Is Dead, But Won’t Sign Anything Saying That

from the j6ers-still-expect-to-get-paid dept

There were some rumors earlier this week that, as it was facing a lot of pushback in court, in the media, and even among (a few) fellow Republicans in Congress, Donald Trump was going to drop his blatantly unconstitutional, illegal, and corrupt $1.776 billion slush fund for MAGA insurrectionists. And now it’s… sorta officially dead… but not really.

Testifying before Congress, Acting Attorney General and full-time Trump toady, told representatives “we are not moving forward with the weaponization fund.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday that the Trump administration is scrapping plans to create a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate allies of the Republican president after widespread political backlash and setbacks in the courts.

“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche said.

But if you watch the actual video, it’s not quite so concrete:

As Rep. Grace Meng asks for Blanche to put it into writing that the fund is not moving forward, Blanche declines to do so. Furthermore, he refuses to say if the equally corrupt, illegal, and problematic deal to not have the IRS audit the president and his family is also going away (meaning that it’s not going away). Of course, he also lies and claims that the settlement is between “the IRS” and Trump, which is simply incorrect. The IRS never signed the agreement. It was done by Blanche and the DOJ. He also tries to (falsely) claim that the audit immunity is “not blanket immunity,” which is just false:

As Rep. DeLauro reads, Blanche’s order (again, not an official “settlement with the IRS despite Blanche’s false claims) gives very clear blanket immunity to Donald Trump, his family, and his businesses:

The United States RELEASES, WAIVES, ACQUITS, and FOREVER DISCHARGES each of the Plaintiffs from, and is hereby FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing, any and all claims, counterclaims, causes of action, appeals, or requests for any relief, including injunctive relief, monetary relief, damages, examinations or similar or related reviews, appeals, debt relief, costs, attorney’s fees, expenses, and/or interest, whether presently known or unknown, that as of the Effective Date of the Settlement Agreement-have been or could have been asserted by Defendants against any of the Plaintiffs or related or affiliated individuals (including, without limitation, family or others filing jointly), or parties including trusts, parent, sister, or related companies, affiliates, and subsidiaries, by reason of, with respect to, in connection with, or which arise out of (1) any matters that were raised or could have been raised in the Case or the Pending Agency Claims; (2) Lawfare and/or Weaponization; or (3) any matters currently pending or that could be pending (including tax returns filed before the Effective Date) before Defendants or other agencies or departments.

That is blanket immunity. Full stop.

But here’s the tell: if Blanche’s “we are not moving forward, period” were actually true, you’d expect the people who stood to benefit to be disappointed. They’re not. January 6th insurrectionists, including Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio — convicted of seditious conspiracy and later pardoned by Trump — still seem to think they’re going to cash in. Tarrio has been saying he deserves tens of millions of dollars, and rather than expressing any disappointment at Blanche’s testimony, he’s explaining why this is actually good news for him, because it means he can get more money from the US government with less oversight.

If you can’t see that, it’s Tarrio texting reporter Liz Landers:

This isn’t an abandonment. They simply state they’re going to wait two weeks… I believe even if this fund is killed in courts or at a congressional level, the President will find a way… They can just settle the tort claims and lawsuits. That has no judicial review or congressional oversight. And it would mean a lot more money in compensation.

Tarrio’s theory — and likely shared by other J6ers — is that they sue the US government, Trump and Blanche agree to “settle,” and millions of taxpayer dollars flow out through the existing Judgment Fund (the same pot the anti-weaponization fund was drawing from) with zero oversight and zero congressional approval.

And he might not be wrong.

It’s also why a competent Congress would step in and shut all of this down. If we had a competent Congress. Which we don’t.

At some point there needs to be a real reckoning with how broken the system already is — that Trump and Blanche got this far is itself an indictment of how bad things are.

Filed Under: anti-weaponization fund, corruption, donald trump, irs, january 6th, todd blanche