Takeaways from Blanche’s House testimony: ‘Anti-weaponization’ fund is over, ban on Trump tax audits remains

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified to lawmakers Tuesday that the Justice Department has abandoned its plans for an “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate people who say they were wrongly prosecuted by the government.

“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche told the House Appropriations subcommittee at the hearing set to discuss the Justice Department’s budget request.

“Not moving forward, ever?” asked Democratic Rep. Grace Meng.

“Correct,” Blanche said.

Blanche, largely relaxed during the two-hour hearing, answered questions posed by Democrats with his standard incredulous glare and furrowed brow.

His announcement comes one day after the administration first signaled a willingness to scrap the fund, which was announced in a settlement between the Internal Revenue Service and President Donald Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization.

A shift by the Justice Department

Abandoning the fund reflects an about-face for the department.

At first, senior Justice Department officials insisted that they wouldn’t change the details of the fund despite pushback from Republicans, sources told CNN at the time. Blanche publicly backed it during his May 19 Senate testimony as the best way to “change the culture” of weaponization.

But after weeks of unrelenting pushback from congressional Republicans, who claimed that there needed to be serious guardrails put in place to ensure that money was being used appropriately and threatened to hold up a separate piece of legislation, some allies began encouraging the president to scrap it entirely.

The Justice Department said vaguely on Monday that it would abide by a court ruling to pause the fund’s creation but did not say what it would do if that ruling was lifted. Blanche’s unequivocal statement during his Tuesday testimony is the first time an administration official definitively said that the fund had been discarded entirely.

Blanche said the “reasons for the fund,” alleged weaponization of the justice system, “remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund.”

Tax audit protections remain

As part of his testimony, the acting attorney general also said that “nothing has changed” in a second agreement that bars the IRS from bringing claims against Trump, his family or businesses for past tax issues will not be rescinded.

The tax term was quietly added to the settlement with the IRS in a hyperlink to a Justice Department press release last month after its initial announcement.

“It’s typical for to get rid of past ongoing audits,” Blanche said defending the document, which he called an “Attorney General order.”

“It’s nothing that gives any sort of immunity in the future to the president or his family or his organizations,” he said.

Nothing in writing

During a follow up question from Meng, who originally pressed Blanche on the anti-weaponization fund, the acting attorney general said he would not submit any filings rescinding the settlement agreement.

“I just want to make sure,” Meng said, “are you going to issue a new memo in writing, rescinding that May 18 memo?”

Blanche, with a furrowed brow, replied: “I’m not committing to putting anything in writing.”

“I don’t know what the purpose of putting something in writing. I’m telling you what we’re doing,” he added.

Meng said it would “restore a lot of trust” since Americans on “both sides of the aisle are concerned about it.”

“I’m just concerned because you’re not under oath,” she concluded, “and I want to trust you, and I want to believe you. We all do, but putting it in writing would settle that issue.”

Blanche testimony may solve political headache for Trump

Republican leaders are hopeful that Blanche’s commitment that the Justice Department is “not moving forward” with the contentious fund will end a weekslong political headache for Trump.

A massive GOP immigration funding bill has been stalled in the Senate after Republicans revolted over the fund — with many especially anxious over the potential for January 6, 2021, rioters to get payouts.

Now that the Justice Department is abandoning the fund, Senate GOP leaders are pressing for a vote as soon as Wednesday to advance the $70 billion bill to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement priorities, according to GOP sources.

But the bill could still be derailed, with rank-and-file frustration at the White House still high. It’s not yet clear if a critical mass of Republicans are willing to move ahead.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune was asked if he has spoken to his hold outs since the Blanche testimony.

“We’ve been talking to our members, continue to dialog with them and see where it goes,” he said.

CNN’s Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

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