Todd Blanche Flails Over Story of J6er Who Tried to Bribe Abuse Victim |
Todd Blanche Flails Over Story of J6er Who Tried to Bribe Abuse Victim
The acting attorney general struggled to defend Donald Trump’s decision to create a slush fund.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche can’t handle the heat created by his own office.
The Justice Department chief immediately lashed out while getting grilled on Capitol Hill Tuesday, accusing Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of lying about a very real case in which a pardoned January 6er—Andrew Paul Johnson—was found guilty of child molestation shortly after Donald Trump freed him.
“That person actually tried to buy the silence of these children by saying that he would pay them some of the funds he was hoping to get from your slush fund,” Van Hollen said, referring to the Justice Department’s forthcoming $1.8 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund,’ a taxpayer-funded initiative to effectively give reparations to allies of the president, including riot defendants.
“Can you commit to making the rules so that that person is not eligible for a payout under this fund?” asked Van Hollen.
But Blanche could not provide a simple, affirmative answer.
“Well you’re obviously lying in your question, because there’s no way this person committed to that,” Blanche said. “The slush fund, as you call it, which is not—but I can’t commit—”
“Mr. Attorney General, don’t ever do that again,” Van Hollen interjected, pointing his finger. “I am reporting what he said. He said on the expectation that he hoped to get some of the funds from a payout.”
“But you said from the slush fund, senator, and that didn’t exist when he said that,” Blanche refuted.
“This is the fund that the president and all of you have been telegraphing, all along, would use to help the president’s friends,” Van Hollen clarified.
Later in the same exchange, Van Hollen accused Blanche of being ignorant and unaware of critical happenings under the purview of his office. Blanche, in turn, continued to deflect.
U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin and DOJ official Jonathan Gross are just two of the figures within the Trump administration who have advocated for financially compensating those that stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
Last year, Martin told right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson that it would be “only fair” to make the rioters “whole.”
Gross said on a podcast in December 2024 that “there has to be compensation.”
“People’s lives have been destroyed,” Gross said at the time. “And the way they can do that is they can just let everybody file a lawsuit and settle the lawsuits.”
Democrats attempted to stave off such payments in January, when California Senator Alex Padilla introduced the “No Rewards for January 6 Rioters Act,” but the bill has made no progress since.
Todd Blanche Panics Under Questioning on Slush Fund, Ghislaine Maxwell
The acting attorney general had a tough time in a hearing before the Senate.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared to be panicking during a Senate Appropriations hearing Tuesday as he tried to justify President Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and his own visit with convicted child sex offender and Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
“You’re gonna assure us that President Trump will get no proceeds from this [fund] … his family will not get [any proceeds]?” Democratic Senator Jack Reed asked in an intense line of questioning on the recently announced $1.8 billion fund.
“Correct,” replied Blanche.
“And who will direct the distribution of these, who gets the money?”
“From the victims’ fund? Well, there’ll be a commission of five individuals that’ll be set up, and they’ll take in requests and claims and decide whether to do anything—”
“Who will name the commissioners?” Reed interrupted.
“I will … whoever the attorney general is … and one of them will be done in consultation with leadership of this body,” said Blanche, ignoring reports that Trump himself will have ultimate say on who remains on the committee.
After pointing to the resignation of the top lawyer at the Department of Treasury following the announcement of the fund, Reed again tried to point out the lines being crossed with the fund.
“This all seems to be an obvious abuse of power by the Department of Justice, by the president,” the Rhode Island senator said. “He negotiated essentially with himself. You’re his appointee. The IRS are his appointees. He’s the plaintiff. And the American people I don’t think are surprised that certainly all this money is going to his friends, or people … in his orbit. Will you ensure that none of this money goes to anyone convicted in the January 6 attack on the Congress?”
“Well, the commissioners will determine who is eligible to receive the money,” Blanche replied.
“Who are the commissioners?”
“They’re not named yet.”
“Who will name them?”
“The attorney general will. It’s not me.”
“With the suggestion of the president of the United States, your boss?”
“I have no idea if he will or not. I really don’t.”
“I would be shocked if he didn’t tell you exactly who to put on, and I’d be more shocked if you did not put them on. This is a travesty of the law.”
Reed then pivoted hard to Blanche’s interview with Maxwell and her special treatment in prison.
Reed: You talked to Ghislaine Maxwell. A few days later, she was transferred from a high security prison to a very comfortable—Blanche: That’s not true. She was not in a high security prison. She was transferred from a low security prison to a low security prison. Reed: I… pic.twitter.com/5duU4ctAqZ— Acyn (@Acyn) May 19, 2026
Reed: You talked to Ghislaine Maxwell. A few days later, she was transferred from a high security prison to a very comfortable—Blanche: That’s not true. She was not in a high security prison. She was transferred from a low security prison to a low security prison. Reed: I… pic.twitter.com/5duU4ctAqZ
“You had an opportunity to go down and talk to Ghislaine Maxwell. And then a few days later she was transferred from a high-security prison to a very comfortable, very comfortable—”
“That’s not true. It’s just not true,” Blanche responded. “She was transferred from a low-security prison to a low-security prison. You’re looking at me.… That’s verifiable.”
“Well I don’t think at the other prison she had her own room, she had access to a private shower, she could have pet therapy—”
“I don’t know if any of that is true, I’m not disagreeing with you—”
“It is true, and you should know it,” said Reed.
“I should know that? Whether an inmate has access to her own shower?”
“No, no. This is a person of extra special interest to the president of the United States. He’s known her. Why did he send you down to talk to her?”
“He didn’t send me. I went. You think President Trump called and asked me to go interview a witness in federal prison? I didn’t!”
“Yes, I do, frankly,” said Reed, talking over........