Why would President Donald Trump be appealing a ruling that stopped his slush fund if acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says the slush fund is no more?
Todd Blanche gains key GOP support for attorney general bid
President Trump’s comment comes after Todd Blanche cleared a major hurdle as key Republican senators backed his nomination.
A pair of Republican senators – John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina – just declared that they will allow themselves to be played for fools in the most predictable and pathetic way.
On Aug. 3, Cornyn and Tillis dropped their opposition on the Senate Judiciary Committee to President Donald Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche as attorney general.
They had threatened to tank Blanche’s bid because he cooked up a remarkably corrupt lawsuit “settlement” that gifted Trump permanent immunity from an Internal Revenue Service audit and a $1.8 billion slush fund to pay his supporters who trashed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Judiciary Committee is set to vote on Blanche’s nomination Aug. 4.
And Blanche knew his nomination was going to fail. So at 11:09 p.m. on Aug. 2, he posted to social media what Cornyn and Tillis took to be the cancellation of the slush fund and restrictions on Trump’s IRS immunity.
They bought it. In identical social media posts on Aug. 3, Cornyn and Tillis went so far as to “express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche for working with us” on their concerns.
Do we really think Trump’s slush fund is going away?
They really should know better. Anyone familiar with Trump’s time as a business owner or politician knows he can’t be trusted about anything involving money.
Blanche posted two documents in his Aug. 2 message.
One is an unsigned Department of Justice memo that says Trump’s IRS immunity “applies by its terms only retroactively” from when that part of the settlement was announced on May 19. The other is a DOJ statement signed by Blanche affirming that the slush fund, first announced on May 18, “is rescinded and shall have no force or effect.”
As legal documents, they have zero value.
They were not filed in a court. No judge examined or approved them. And Trump did not sign them. On Aug. 3, he told journalists he didn’t even look at them and didn’t know what they contained.
That’s not how federal lawsuits work. Settlements are not amended via social media posts by one party in an action.
It says exactly that in one of the two documents Blanche now claims to have amended – “This Settlement Agreement may be modified only with the written agreement of the Parties.”
But it’s fitting that Blanche would hoodwink Cornyn and Tillis, since this was all born of a sham lawsuit. And we know Blanche sees himself as Trump’s personal attorney, not the acting attorney general.
Trump doesn’t seem to know his fund isn’t happening
Those so-called settlements were supposed to end the lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS in January, seeking $10 billion because an agency contractor leaked copies of his tax returns to news outlets during his first term.
But the federal judge overseeing the case first raised serious questions about its legitimacy, because everyone trying to defend the government from Trump works for Trump, and then ruled on July 13 that the lawsuit was “brought for an improper purpose – to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact.”
That ruling prevented Trump from enforcing his settlements. Trump on July 31 filed notice with the court that he will appeal that ruling.
Why would Trump be appealing a ruling that stopped his slush fund if Blanche says the slush fund is no more? The president spent the weekend and Aug. 3 talking about what a great idea the slush fund is, even suggesting that he would try to have Congress codify it into law.
“These people were treated horribly, and this fund could have given them some solace,” Trump said at the White House on Aug. 3 about criminals who attacked police officers at the Capitol. “So I view that fund as a positive and a lot of Republicans do, too.”
Does that sound like a cancelled slush fund to you? Has Trump ever sounded like a president who gives up on terrible ideas that benefit him financially?
Cornyn and Tillis had the political freedom to stand by their convictions, but they caved to Trump anyway.
Cornyn’s fourth term ends in January because he was defeated in his primary election by a Trump-endorsed candidate. Tillis isn’t seeking a third term because he knew Trump would do to him what he did to Cornyn.
Here’s what’s likely to happen next.
Blanche will clear the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote and then likely be approved by a full Senate vote. Then the attorney general will get back to work, reviving Trump’s slush fund because that’s what Trump wants.
Who knows what Blanche will do with Trump’s IRS immunity? But he certainly could expand it. Remember, all he needs is a signed agreement between Trump and the man he nominated to be attorney general.
And, as is so often the case in Trump’s second term, we will need the courts to step in and stop the corrupt chaos. That means the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, where Trump’s appeal will land, must not get played like Cornyn and Tillis.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on Bluesky, @bychrisbrennan.bsky.social, and on X, @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.