Harry Litman - Blanche's Biggest Boondoggle

The man whom Trump has decided to nominate for Attorney General, Todd Blanche, told the House Tuesday that the administration is “not moving forward” with the $1.776 billion slush fund for insurrectionists and other pals. But his statement, which was not given under oath, only muddies the already inky waters. The retreat takes the whole scheme from dodgy to incoherent—while leaving it every bit as lawless.

Blanche executed the retreat in testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee, where he was characteristically combative even in surrender. When Congresswoman Grace Meng pressed him, twice, to put that commitment in writing, he declined. When she asked again, Blanche gestured at the hearing transcript itself: that record, he suggested, was documentation enough.

No, he would not file anything with any court. No, he would not formally rescind the settlement agreement that was never placed before Judge Kathleen Williams’s court—she noted in her dismissal order that “there is no settlement of record”—and Blanche has now refused to file anything to formally rescind even that extra-judicial document.

So what we have is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States making an oral promise to Congress that he will stop doing something illegal, while refusing to formalize even that much. The country, which overwhelmingly rejected the payout to insurrectionists, can only rely on the words of Todd Blanche, who has described himself, without embarrassment, as the president’s man in all things.

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/blanches-biggest-boondoggle