Anti-weaponization fund is dead, Blanche says

WASHINGTON -The Department of Justice has permanently abandoned plans for a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization compensation fund created to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump against the Internal Revenue Service, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified to a House panel on Tuesday.

But Trump, his family members and related business entities remain protected from tax audits and enforcement actions in connection with tax returns filed before last month’s out-of-court settlement of his lawsuit, Blanche told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies.

Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s criminal defense attorney, personally signed off on the DOJ’s May 19 addendum to the settlement of the lawsuit that gave Trump and his family that protection, a day after the deal was announced.

The addendum also bars the DOJ from prosecuting Trump and the others for cases that would be based on “Lawfare and/or Weaponization,” without defining what those terms mean or what alleged conduct it could entail.

“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche told Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the subcommittee. But he later refused to put that promise in writing despite telling Meng that the DOJ would never relaunch the fund.

Blanche’s answer came a day after the DOJ said it would not “proceed” with the fund in order to comply with a federal judge’s order temporarily blocking it from operating as one of three lawsuits challenging it proceeded. Blanche told Meng that the DOJ would not operate the fund regardless of the outcome of the lawsuits.

Critics of the fund said that the DOJ’s statement did not make clear whether the department had dropped any plans for the fund.

Those critics, who include Republican senators, opposed the fund because of the lack of legislative oversight over the fund, and concerns that it would pay people convicted of attacking police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. (Source: CNBC)