The ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ Threatens to Kill Blanche’s AG Nomination

In mid-July, I explained that there is nothing dead about the outrageous “Anti-Weaponization Fund” — a raid on the public fisc ginned up as part of President Trump’s “settlement” with himself in his lawsuit against his administration over a time-barred leak of taxpayer information carried out by a convicted contractor of his last administration. Notwithstanding the insistence of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the settlement agreement that created this slush fund can only be amended by a written agreement of the parties.

Blanche has resisted memorializing in writing his claim that the fund is kaput, because President Trump wants the fund. Blanche’s intransigence on this matter, and his tortured testimony at the recent confirmation hearing on his nomination to be full-fledged AG, is now threatening to derail that appointment.

I’m disappointed but not surprised that there is drama over this.

Whatever one thinks of Blanche, and contrary to advocacy in his behalf by legal commentators whom I respect, I believe the Senate’s role in our constitutional system is to be a check on executive lawlessness and abuse of power. If a Democrat prone to lawfare and other abuses of DOJ authorities were president, it would be inconceivable that Republicans — including the many who support Blanche — would champion such a president’s DOJ nominees by rationalizing: “Let’s face it, this is a norm-busting president, and no one can completely stop him from abusing prosecutorial power, so we should support well-credentialed nominees — even those with a disturbing record of abetting him — in the hope that, at least sometimes, they’ll try, however futilely, to discourage some of his worst excesses.”

It is the Senate’s and the Congress’s obligation to suppress presidential abuse of power, regardless of which party is in the White House. If lawmakers are not going to impeach an abusive president because they don’t have the votes or believe doing so would be overkill, then they have a duty to use Congress’s other, less drastic means to address the problem. The power to deny confirmation, especially to a nominee who has demonstrated that he is part of the problem, not its potential solution, is a fitting response.

(By the way, using the power of the purse would be another fitting response. Congressional Republicans could easily use that power to deny any money for the Anti-Weaponization Fund or any similar scheme to make payments to Capitol riot pardon recipients. Alas, like Blanche, they are too intimidated to confront the president and his base this way. That is why, for all the hullaballoo about the fund, there has been no congressional Republican pushback on an equally noxious component of the settlement agreement — Blanche’s ultra vires attempt to give Trump immunity from tax audits and other tax enforcement.)

For the reasons that I’ve outlined recently, that we’ve explained in our editorial on Blanche’s nomination, and that George Will has marshaled a few days ago, a no vote against Blanche should be an easy call. But, of course, if it were an easy call for Republicans — i.e., if they were still the Constitution-defending, right-of-center party — the president would not have nominated him. Hence, despite all the demerits of Blanche’s tenure as deputy AG and acting AG, Judiciary Committee Republicans are poised nearly en masse to approve the nomination.

The sole holdup is the Anti-Weaponization Fund. Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas), who will not be on the ballot in November after he was beaten in the GOP primary by the grimy Ken Paxton (supported by the president), is peeved that Blanche does not appear to have taken seriously his objection to the failure of the president and the Justice Department to rescind the Anti-Weaponization Fund in an enforceable writing. The senator is reportedly miffed that Blanche blew off a meeting with him on the subject and that Blanche insults his intelligence by mulishly maintaining that the fund is dead when it clearly is not. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, another Republican whose hopes for reelection were doomed by Trump’s opposition (with the result that Democrats are in strong position to pick up his seat in November), has been similarly exasperated over the fund and signaled that he will follow Cornyn’s lead.

Blanche’s nomination will sink unless committee Republicans unanimously support it. Indeed, the chairman, Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), won’t hold the vote scheduled this afternoon unless he knows that the support is there. . . . And after this week, the Senate goes on its long summer recess.

I imagine that the White House and DOJ are scrambling to craft some document, which can be publicly sold as a formal rescission of the fund, that the DOJ can sign but that Trump’s lawyer doesn’t sign, so it can be made to look as if the president did not back down to Cornyn and Tillis. Such a document would not be an effective rescission under the terms of the settlement agreement, which requires both parties to concur in writing to any modification. The question is whether it, or something like it, would be enough to convince the reluctant senators to get in line.

And remember: It’s all unnecessary given that Blanche, who has been confirmed as deputy AG, could continue doing the job on an acting basis.