On the surface, Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination looks like a foregone conclusion. There are all kinds of reasons why the acting AG should be rejected, but there are 53 Senate Republicans, and the idea that four of them are going to reject Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department seems far-fetched.
But just below the surface, it’s a bit more complicated. To reach the floor for a confirmation vote, Blanche first needs to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee, where GOP senators have a narrower, 11-10 majority, in the wake of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s recent passing. If every Democrat on the panel votes against Blanche, which seems likely, the nominee will need unanimous support from the committee’s Republican members.
Last week, Blanche hoped to lock up that support during a difficult confirmation hearing, but that didn’t quite go according to plan: As The New York Times reported, “The fate of Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general remained uncertain on Wednesday after a rocky confirmation hearing in which a Republican senator raised serious questions about his role in creating a $1.8 billion fund for purported victims of Justice Department persecution.”
Indeed, among the most obvious reasons to oppose Blanche is his recent role in creating a highly controversial compensation fund worth $1.766 billion, which was quickly condemned by members of both parties as a “slush fund” that would be used to benefit the White House’s political allies. Given an opportunity during last week’s hearing to declare in writing that the payout fund is dead and will not be resurrected, he refused, insisting that such a step was unnecessary.
This appeared to be a point of concern for two GOP members — Texas’ John Cornyn and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis — both of whom are retiring at the end of the year, freeing them from the usual intraparty pressures. This week, the relevance of the issue lingered. Politico reported:
In 404 pages of written responses to additional questions from senators released Monday night, Blanche sidestepped a string of queries Tillis posed to the nominee regarding the “anti-weaponization fund” — including one in which Tillis asked directly, “If the President directs you to reverse your decision and move forward with the Fund, will you move forward?”
Blanche responded that “it would be inappropriate for me to comment on hypothetical communications I may or may not have with the President,” adding that “The Anti-Weaponization Fund is dead.”
Courthouse News’ Benjamin Weiss highlighted Blanche’s written responses on this line of inquiry, making clear that the nominee did not want to discuss, among other things, details surrounding the creation of the fund.
Stepping back, the broader dynamic is awfully tough to defend. As the Times’ editorial board explained, “Earlier this year, Mr. Blanche agreed to a settlement that resulted in tax audit immunity for President Trump and his family as well as a potential $1.8 billion payout fund controlled by his administration. It was an inside deal: Mr. Trump the citizen was on one side of the negotiation, while the Internal Revenue Service, which he oversees, was on the other.
“Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida said in her ruling [last week] that she was ‘extremely troubled’ by Mr. Blanche’s behavior. It was so egregious that she referred his actions to judicial officials in New York State for potential disciplinary action, including disbarment.”
A week later, he still doesn’t want to answer straightforward questions about this from a senator in his own party.
To be sure, I’m mindful of the political context: Blanche critics who are counting on Tillis or Cornyn to derail his nomination are likely to be disappointed when all is said and done. But if the retiring Senate Republicans are looking for an excuse to do the right thing, the acting attorney general has certainly given them one.
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