Republicans who were once skeptical of President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee are now pleased to help him along after supposedly receiving certain promises, but according to an analysis from The New Republic, they are actually falling for a “sneaky ploy” to save his job.
Trump has nominated Todd Blanche, his former personal attorney and acting attorney general, to take over the job permanently, but he had in recent weeks run into a wall of opposition in the Senate. Several key Republicans, including Trump enemies Sen. Thom Tillis and Sen. John Cornyn, demanded that he do more to shut down the president’s “anti-weaponization” slush fund and IRS audit immunity deal, which he was initially cagey about doing. Now, as of Sunday evening, Blanche has issued an order addressing these demands and received the approval of Tillis and Cornyn to advance his nomination out of the Senate committee.
“Senator Cornyn has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice, which will be issuing a formal order permanently terminating the anti-weaponization fund and making clear in a binding written document that the scope of the audit settlement is limited to only the plaintiffs, including the President, and the IRS,” Cornyn’s office said in a statement.
However, the actual terms of the order are not what they seem to be, as Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling wrote in a Monday piece for The New Republic. Instead, Blanche’s order leaves paths open for these contested settlement clauses to return, and amounts to a “sneaky ploy” to save his job.
“On its face, Blanche’s note appeared to terminate the fund, specifying that the order was ‘rescinded and shall have no force or effect,'” Houghtaling wrote. “However, journalists were quick to comment that the language employed in the rest of Blanche’s memo not only suggested that the honeypot fund would be preserved in some form but also failed to terminate Trump’s underlying IRS immunity arrangement. But vague gestures at accountability were apparently all Cornyn needed to get in line.”
She added later: “The idea of the fund fell apart following weeks of backlash, numerous lawsuits, and opposition from even Republican lawmakers, who felt the issue had gummed up party efforts to pass a reconciliation bill. But Trump has refused to let the topic go, repeatedly affirming his support for the supposedly defunct fund. Blanche’s efforts to salvage the fund should be viewed as yet more evidence that the fund is not as dead as officials have publicly claimed.”
She also cited analysis from legal journalist Adam Klasfeld, who wrote on X Monday: “When this kabuki standoff began, Cornyn wanted Blanche to modify the purported settlement agreement. This isn’t that: Blanche rescinded a separate OAG directive. Cornyn knows the difference — and apparently, simply blinked. Let’s be clear: It’s more certain that Trump is still pursuing bounties for rioters today than when this started. Trump is openly stating that’s the goal, taking legal action to get there and refusing to do the one thing that would kill it.”