Senators put Blanche on defense over $1.776B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday had to go on defense over the Justice Department’s new “anti-weaponization” fund, a coffer he told lawmakers would be available to Trump campaign donors and those convicted of attacking police.

Blanche appeared Tuesday before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee for a previously scheduled hearing about the Justice Department’s budget request. But the new $1.776 billion fund announced on Monday was the top focus of Democrats, as well as Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and subcommittee Chair Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), who asked a series of questions about who would qualify and how the money would be dispersed.

The hearing offered new details about the fund which was announced as part of a settlement after President Trump agreed to drop his $10 billion suit against his own Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In seeking to voluntarily dismiss the case, the parties are sidestepping a federal judge who had asked Trump and the Justice Department to explain whether they were truly adversaries as required for bringing a case.

Democrats spent much of the hearing tearing into the settlement and the fund.

“This all seems to be an obvious abuse of power by the Department of Justice, by the president. He negotiated essentially with himself. You’re his appointee, the IRS are his appointees, he’s the plaintiff,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who later called Blanche “the president’s consigliore.”

“And the American people, I don’t think, are surprised that suddenly all this money is going to his friends or people that are in his orbit.”

Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said the creation of the fund had made lawmakers “really, really angry.”

“What we are talking about is nothing short of the sitting president of the United States looting from the treasury for his own gain. Do you seriously think this arrangement is appropriate? The president telling the federal government to settle a case and let him pay billions to the people that he chooses?” she asked.

“This is........

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