Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has canceled his meeting with President Donald Trump’s candidate for attorney general, Todd Blanche, after the Justice Department made it clear it doesn’t have any further information on confirmation that the so-called “slush fund” was officially eliminated as a possibility, reported MS NOW producer Kyle Griffin.
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Blanche was questioned about the nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that could be used to give a kind of restitution to anyone who felt they’d been wronged by the DOJ in the past. This includes Jan. 6 attackers who both confessed and were convicted of crimes related to a violent riot at the U.S. Capitol Building.
“Hopefully they now recognize the seriousness of this,” said Cornyn, according to a Politico report. “I haven’t seen a single piece of writing that is responsive to what I’ve requested.”
“Maybe they think I’m just going to give up or, you know, go along, but they’re mistaken,” he added.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Cornyn must indicate whether he’s a “yay or nay” on Blanche by 4 p.m. on Wednesday. According to Politico, Grassley needs to know “if the vote could go forward, putting the Trump administration on a tight timeline if it wants Blanche confirmed before the Senate starts its summer recess next week.”
Blanche has maintained for the past several months that the fund is “dead” and that it would not be created. The problem, Cornyn said, is that the legal agreement that Blanche and Trump came to about the IRS would still establish the fund. Trump sued the IRS after his personal information was leaked in a data breach along with over 405,000 other people and businesses.
When Blanche asserted the fund was “moot,” Cornyn asked, “Well, I would refer you to the settlement agreement. Do you happen to have a copy of that in front of you?”
Cornyn read the language verbatim from page four of the agreement: “This settlement agreement can be modified, may be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties. Has there been a written agreement of the parties to modify the settlement fund?”
Blanche claimed that the fund was not going forward, so there is no modification to the agreement between Trump and the government.
“Well, so the settlement agreement remains as it was originally. But I hear what you’re saying is it — is the settlement agreement enforceable as a contract by the parties?” he asked.
Blanche said that it was and would be considered an “enforceable document.”
Kathleen Williams, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, published a 56-page ruling not only denouncing the case as “an exercise in self-dealing,” but also bashing Trump’s so-called “settlement” over his IRS lawsuit, a case “that had no viable basis in law or fact.”
Blanche has continued to refuse to sign a legal document asserting that the slush fund is dead.