Trump tells Americans ‘you’re not going to get anybody better’ than Todd Blanche for AG. Here’s what he really means

Trump tells Americans ‘you’re not going to get anybody better’ than Todd Blanche for AG. Here’s what he really means The ‘slush fund’ may be dead but Trump isn’t killing or even narrowing his IRS immunity deal brokered by the man he wants running the DOJ, Alex Woodward writes - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments To hear Donald Trump say it, the president’s former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche is a “STAR” and “a very, very good man” who doesn’t deserve getting thrown into the middle of a political fight over his future as the most powerful law enforcement official in the country. “He should be approved, because you will never get anybody like him,” Trump told reporters Friday from Camp David. “You’re never gonna get a person like that.” Trump is right in that there is no other obvious candidate quite like Blanche. It was Blanche who defended him throughout his federal indictments and his criminal trial, who said that the president has a “right” to prosecute his political enemies, and who enabled a dramatically reshaped Department of Justice under the president’s direction. And it was Blanche who brokered a deal to bail out the president, his family and their businesses from IRS investigations, saving them potentially tens of millions of dollars in penalties with an unprecedented single-page document that memorializes the scheme. Blanche’s nomination for U.S. attorney general now hinges on whether the president will agree to drop that so-called settlement altogether. A red line from a pair of Republican senators is barely there. They don’t appear to be trying to rip up the IRS agreement. They’re merely asking for some tweaks. In other words, they want firm language to enshrine his corruption with some guardrails, not eliminate it altogether, but even that’s a bridge too far for Trump and Blanche. Trump agreed to drop a lawsuit against his own administration for $10 billion in exchange for that powerful immunity shield, which Blanche signed and later defended as an “order” from the acting attorney general himself. Trump’s latest defense of his former personal attorney follows his threat to withdraw Blanche’s nomination rather than agree to the demands of Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, who are withholding their votes unless the administration agrees to narrow the immunity shield and block a so-called “slush fund” for the president’s aggressive political allies. They want Blanche’s assurance that the nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is canceled for good, not just because a federal judge shut it down. Blanche has testified that the fund is “not moving forward” and even the president has conceded that it’s “dead.” But Trump is still dangling the prospect of multi-million dollar taxpayer payouts to January 6 rioters and other allies prosecuted under Joe Biden’s administration, reviving the “retribution” campaign he promised his voters in 2024 in the weeks before midterm elections with the balance of power in Congress and fate of his final years in office at stake. “It’s dead, but you know, I wish it weren’t to be honest with you,” Trump told reporters Friday. “I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused … and I’d like to see them compensated for their pain.” Among the January 6 rioters were “people who were very successful, that wanted to go to a rally, or an event, and ended up spending the rest of their lives in horror,” Trump said Friday. “You can say what you want about the fund, and they’ve agreed to not have a fund, but there are a lot of people that are very upset about it,” he said. “A lot of Republican people, a lot of Democrat people.” The president’s admission of defeat over a controversial “slush fund” appears to be a red herring to preserve the IRS deal. Trump is willing to sacrifice the fund to save Blanche’s nomination and keep the IRS deal intact, giving the illusion of a “win” for anti-corruption Republicans while salvaging the president’s candidate — who can continue serving as an acting attorney general even if his nomination is tanked. After all, as he admits, the president won't be getting a dime from the fund. But he stands to save millions with the IRS shield. Those checks to January 6 rioters can still be written whether or not a special “fund” is created to pay for them. Republicans and administration officials have already indicated that the government could turn to an existing fund to start settling hundreds of lawsuits and other claims brought by Trump’s allies. The more consequential battle for the president is over potential audits and whether a spurious memo protecting him from IRS investigations will expand to cover other federal probes into the Trump family and their businesses. A federal judge has already sanctioned Trump’s legal team after finding that the president filed a dubious lawsuit against his own IRS for the sole purpose of forcing a settlement. “This action was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute,” Florida District Judge Kathleen Williams wrote in a stinging rebuke of the deal earlier this month. Trump effectively laundered the legitimacy of a federal courtroom to create the illusion of a settlement, the judge found. Blanche insists he didn’t have anything to do with it, but his signature is on the document giving the president a powerful legal shield in an arsenal full of them. Trump on Thursday boasted that the senators’ “political careers have been ended” by his refusal to endorse them. “I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,” Trump said. “You want to know the truth?” he said Friday about Cornyn. “I’d do the same thing.” Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments