Topline<\/p>\n
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department are facing mounting questions over the DOJ\u2019s decision to settle a lawsuit between President Donald Trump and the IRS\u2014and create a $1.8 billion fund<\/a> expected to pay Trump\u2019s allies\u2014even as new reporting<\/a> claimed the IRS was ready to vigorously defend itself in the suit.<\/p>\n Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies during a Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Hearing on Capitol Hill on May 19.<\/p>\n Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n Blanche testified Tuesday in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, in a hearing focused on the Justice Department\u2019s 2027 budget.<\/p>\n Blanche was immediately criticized for his role in setting up the settlement fund<\/a>, in which the Trump administration committed $1.776 billion toward helping \u201cvictims of lawfare and weaponization,\u201d and will be run by a five-person committee made up of people appointed by the attorney general.<\/p>\n The acting AG defended the fund under questioning from Democratic senators, acknowledging the structure was \u201cunusual \u2026 but not unprecedented\u201d and claiming it was not limited to Republicans and political allies of the president.<\/p>\n Blanche also deflected questions about whether people convicted of assaulting police officers and of other violent crimes could get payouts\u2014saying the board of commissioners for the fund would make those determinations, not him\u2014and attempted to distance Trump from the fund, claiming the president \u201cdid not direct me to do anything\u201d in terms of reaching the settlement.<\/p>\n The New York Times reported<\/a> shortly after the hearing ended that before the settlement was reached, IRS attorneys had actually recommended the agency instead try to dismiss the case, presenting legal arguments for why it should be dismissed.<\/p>\n Those arguments were never made in court and the case was instead settled before the IRS could even formally respond to the lawsuit, raising new questions about the government\u2019s process for reaching the settlement\u2014even as Blanche claimed Tuesday the fund was not politically motivated or created at Trump\u2019s urging.<\/p>\n Crucial Quote<\/p>\n \u201cThe president did not set up this fund, it\u2019s not a slush fund,\u201d Blanche said Tuesday under questioning from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash, though he did later tell Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., he was \u201cconfident [Trump\u2019s] lawyers urged the president\u2019s desires\u201d in negotiating the settlement. <\/p>\n What Do We Know About Trump Settling With The Irs?<\/p>\n While the government\u2019s decision making behind creating the $1.8 billion fund remains unclear, the process of reaching the settlement had already been flagged as odd. Trump first sued the IRS in January, accusing the agency of violating his privacy after a contractor shared his tax returns, and talks of a settlement first began in April. Trump and his co-plaintiffs told the court April 17 they were already in discussions with the government about settling the case, even before the IRS could respond to the lawsuit\u2019s allegations. They asked the court to pause proceedings while they first tried to settle, and Judge Kathleen Mary Williams, who oversaw the lawsuit, didn\u2019t automatically agree, instead first asking Trump and the government to file briefs with the court over whether they were actually \u201cadverse\u201d parties in the lawsuit with opposing interests. Parties who aren\u2019t opposed can\u2019t sue each other\u2014as then they could cooperate in the case\u2014and Williams suggested it\u2019s \u201cunclear\u201d whether Trump was actually a separate party from the IRS that he ultimately controls as president. Legal experts also raised questions about the timing, with an outside expert appointed by the court to weigh in on the issue noting<\/a> it was \u201cadmittedly unusual\u201d for the parties to engage in settlement talks before the IRS could respond. Trump and the IRS then settled the case only two days before they were required to tell the court why or why not the lawsuit should move forward\u2014sparking criticism<\/a> from Democrats and ethics experts that the president was trying to circumvent the courts by settling the case and getting a benefit from it before it could potentially be thrown out.<\/p>\n Tangent<\/p>\n In addition to discussing the $1.8 billion fund, Van Hollen also asked Blanche if he would commit the Trump administration to not pardon people who were named in the government\u2019s files on Jeffrey Epstein. While Blanche would not make that commitment, noting thousands of people were named in the Epstein files, many without doing anything wrong, he did claim the government would not pardon longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. \u201cYes I can commit to that, of course,\u201d Blanche told Van Hollen.<\/p>\n Will Doj Make Public Who Gets Money From $1.8 Billion Fund?<\/p>\n While Trump\u2019s settlement agreement says only that \u201cconfidential written reports\u201d will be submitted to the attorney general detailing who gets money from the $1.8 billion fund, Blanche claimed Tuesday that those reports will be publicly released. The acting AG did not commit to making all information about the fund\u2019s activities public, however, claiming that some information would remain private due to various privacy laws.<\/p>\n What We Don\u2019t Know<\/p>\n There are still a number of outstanding questions about the \u201canti-weaponization fund,\u201d including when payouts will start and who exactly will receive one. People who claim to have been victimized by the Justice Department can voluntarily apply for relief through the fund, which will provide both \u201cformal apologies\u201d and monetary compensation. Blanche said Tuesday that commissioners could come up with rules around who can and cannot apply for relief through the fund, but claimed he would play no role in determining those rules.<\/p>\n Blanche Faces Separate Senate Investigation<\/p>\n Blanche has also come under fire for playing a role in establishing and overseeing the $1.8 billion fund from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats opened a probe<\/a> Tuesday into whether the acting AG had been advised to recuse himself from overseeing matters into Trump, including his former client\u2019s 10-figure settlement, sending letters requesting documents to the Justice Department and the assistant attorney general.<\/p>\n Surprising Fact<\/p>\n While Blanche was predominantly questioned by Democrats about the $1.8 billion fund during the Senate hearing Tuesday, an increasing number of Republican senators are expressing concerns about the settlement. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told<\/a> reporters Tuesday he was \u201cnot a big fan\u201d of the settlement, adding, \u201cI don’t see a purpose for it.\u201d Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told<\/a> reporters Monday he had \u201ca lot\u201d of questions about the fund\u2014though he didn\u2019t challenge Blanche on the fund during Tuesday\u2019s hearing\u2014while Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., after losing his primary race for reelection, more explicitly slammed the fund, saying<\/a>, \u201cPeople are concerned about making ends meet, not about putting a slush fund together without a legal precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n Further ReadingForbesTrump Gets $1.8 Billion Payday With \u2018Anti-Weaponization\u2019 Fund As He Drops IRS CaseBy Alison Durkee<\/a>ForbesWhy Trump\u2019s $1.8 Billion IRS Settlement Could Actually Cost Him MoneyBy Alison Durkee<\/a>ForbesTrump\u2019s IRS Lawsuit Could Be Invalid\u2014Here\u2019s Why He Could Still Get $1.7 Billion AnywayBy Alison Durkee<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department are facing mounting questions over the DOJ\u2019s decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[210332,210331,210329,54,42,210328,210333,210330,43,210327,7137,194591,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-449884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-1-776-billion","tag-acting-attorney-general","tag-anti-weaponization-fund","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-irs-lawsuit","tag-is-trumps-irs-settlement-fund-legal","tag-jan-6-rioters","tag-news","tag-senate-hearing","tag-settlement","tag-todd-blanche","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}