WASHINGTON – Appearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies yesterday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche retreated from the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion slush fund under pressure, refused to formalize the decision, and dodged questions calling for accountability.
The American people deserve an attorney general working for them, not one operating at the beck and call of President Trump.
Here are the key lowlights from Blanche’s House hearing:
BLANCHE DROPS THE SLUSH FUND BUT REFUSES TO PUT IT IN WRITING
Facing pressure from a court injunction and Republican backlash that threatened to derail a reconciliation bill, Blanche told the subcommittee the Justice Department is dropping its $1.8 billion slush fund. But when pressed to commit that abandonment to paper, Blanche refused: “I’m not committing to putting anything in writing.”
The public has only Blanche’s word that the fund is gone.
BLANCHE DEFENDS PERMANENT TAX IMMUNITY FOR TRUMP AND HIS FAMILY
While Blanche walked away from the fund, he confirmed the companion order he personally signed, which permanently bars the IRS from auditing Trump, his family, the Trump Organization, and affiliated individuals, will remain fully intact. Rep. Rosa DeLauro called it what it is: “Simply put, you just gave the president and his family tax immunity to the tune of about $100 million.”
Blanche refused to rescind the order and insisted it was standard settlement practice and “not a forward-looking document.”
BLANCHE STONEWALLED AGAIN ON EPSTEIN
When Rep. Madeleine Dean pressed Blanche on the DOJ’s defiance of the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by Trump himself, Blanche claimed the DOJ had complied with the law. Dean set the record straight: “There are 3 million more documents.”
At his May 19 Senate hearing, Blanche offered the same evasion: no explanation for the withheld files, no accounting for the removed documents, and no answers for survivors or the public.
BLANCHE REFUSED TO CONFRONT HIS OWN CONFLICTS
Rep. DeLauro asked Blanche directly: “My God, don’t you find there’s any conflict of interest in what you are doing here as the acting Attorney General of the United States?” She noted for the record that Trump’s Save America PAC paid Blanche nearly $10 million to serve as Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney, and that Blanche now oversees a DOJ that permanently barred the IRS from investigating the same client.
When pressed to address the conflict, Blanche deflected: “I didn’t. What are you saying is the conflict? I don’t understand what you’re saying.”