Takeaways from Todd Blanche’s Senate testimony: Weaponization fund, Epstein probes and Trump prosecutions dominate

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Tierney Sneed, Holmes Lybrand, Devan Cole, Paula Reid, CNN

(CNN) — Todd Blanche vociferously defended the Justice Department’s newly established anti-weaponization fund as not limited to President Donald Trump’s allies in the acting attorney general’s first appearance before Congress since assuming his position.

Though the arrangement is “unusual,” Blanche conceded Tuesday, anyone can apply for an official apology or a cut of the nearly $1.8 billion fund, which was announced Monday alongside Trump’s dropping of a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leaking of his tax information.

Questions about the fund’s details dominated the hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Blanche’s testimony strayed significantly from his goal to promote the department’s cornerstone issues under the Trump administration.

Still, the acting attorney general remained short on details of how the fund will be dolled out. None of the five commissioners overseeing the fund has been chosen yet, he said, noting that those commissioners will set guidelines for distributing the payments.

Chief among the issues that Blanche dodged is whether those who assaulted law enforcement officers on January 6, 2021, would be eligible for a payout.

“I will definitely encourage the commissioners to take everything into account when determining who should get compensation,” Blanche said.

“But why not this specific issue of [being] convicted of violent acts against police officers?” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley asked. “You feel they should get compensation after being convicted of violent acts?”

“My feelings don’t matter, Senator,” Blanche said.

Here are takeaways from his more than two hours of testimony.

Testimony largely focused on the newly established fund

The hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee was set to discuss the Justice Department’s budget request, and Blanche arrived prepared to tout the agency’s efforts to fight violent crime and drug trafficking, two of the Trump administration’s priorities.

His testimony came at a pivotal time for both the Justice Department and Blanche himself. Blanche, who represented Trump in two federal court cases, took over the Justice Department after the president fired Pam Bondi in April.

He has since been on a mission to prove to the White House that he should be nominated to fill the attorney general spot permanently. His effort has resulted in a series of splashy announcements from the Justice Department, including indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and the Southern Poverty Law Center, rolling back gun control measures, and issuing subpoenas to journalists for their sources.

But questioning quickly devolved into criticisms by Democratic officials that the “slush fund” announced Monday was meant to enrich the president’s own allies and supporters.

“Rewarding individuals who committed crimes is obscene,” Democratic Sen. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said at the start of the hearing. “Every American can see through this illegal, corrupt, self-dealing scheme.”

Blanche said the fund is “not limited to Republicans, it’s not limited to the Biden weaponization, it’s not limited in any way, scope or form to January 6 or to Jack Smith,” the former special counsel. “There’s no limitation on the claims.”

He also sought to compare the anti-weaponization fund to an Obama-era fund set up in a case brought by Native American farmers alleging discrimination by the Department of Agriculture that offered funding to organizations supporting those communities.

But there are key differences in those cases, including that the tribal fund was part of a court-supervised settlement, while the anti-weaponization fund will not be subject to judicial oversight.

Blanche again criticizes prosecutions of Trump

As questions about the $1.776 billion fund intensified, Blanche forcefully pushed back on allegations that it was made to give taxpayer money to Trump or his entities.

“To the contrary, President Trump isn’t taking a dime,” Blanche said at the hearing’s close.

“The idea that it is a ‘slush fund,’ which it’s not,” only goes to prove Trump’s claim that the Biden administration sought “to destroy the previous administration, not just President Trump, anybody that came in contact with him,” he said.

“You know there’s a flaw in the legal system, because this legal system was not set up to compensate for what the Democrats and what Biden and what Garland did for four years,” he said, referring to former Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The fund will help “change the culture” of weaponization, Blanche said.

Justice Department still plagued by Epstein files

Blanche also faced questions about the Jeffrey Epstein files, including the department’s continued effort to investigate accusations of sex trafficking by those around the late financier.

The acting attorney general has sought to bring an end the saga that dogged Bondi before her ousting.

When asked about whether the Justice Department had any open investigations related to Epstein, he said sharply: “He’s dead.”

“Any investigation into potential other bad guys will always be open if we have evidence that supports in any way, shape or form that we can make a case,” Blanche added when asked about the case tied to Bondi’s firing.

When pressed, Blanche said he wouldn’t base investigations off political affiliation — something Democratic lawmakers remain unconvinced about.

“This president has repeatedly spoken of an enemies list that he wants to go after, and I must say it’s one of the symbols of the breakdown of a democratic republic,” Merkley said following Blanche’s commitment to nonpartisanship.

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