The ever-changing $1.8 billion fund deal that President Trump and his Cabinet put together to benefit his political allies got a new revision Sunday night – but maybe only as a political document. Its legal status is still in doubt.
Trump’s plan to transfer the huge sum of U.S. Treasury money to hundreds of his followers for perceived mistreatment by the former Biden Administration has been given new interpretations by the Justice Department in two documents: an official order signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and a press release – not signed and uncertain in legal effect — by the Justice Department.
Here is what they apparently attempt to do:
· Blanche’s order declares the so-called “Anti-weaponization Fund” to be “rescinded,” now having “no force or effect.” It adds: “This Order, establishes beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund.”
· The Department’s press release keeps significantly intact, but narrows, the part of the Fund deal that promised the Trump family and Trump businesses legal immunity “forever” from government tax audits or other federal financial claims. The new version stressed that the immunity is valid only for past audits or obligations, and it withdraws immunity from scores of Trump business and family ties, while leaving it intact only for Trump, his older sons and business partners Donald Jr. and Eric, and their main family firm, the Trump Organization. (Blanche’s separate official order on the Fund makes no mention of the immunity promise.)
These revisions appear to have been adopted to satisfy demands from two Republican Senators critical of the Fund who have withheld their support for Blanche to become U.S. Attorney General. In releasing the two papers Sunday night, Blanche said they resulted from “good faith discussions” to answer Senators’ “concerns or outstanding questions.”
On Monday morning, the two objecting Senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, issued a joint statement saying they would support the nomination when it is put to a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, probably tomorrow. Approval there would send the nomination to the full Senate, where it likely would be confirmed.
The revisions made by Blanche do not appear to bind President Trump, who is Blanche’s government superior. The President said this weekend that he still favors compensation for his followers “and I will get it done.”
Even as the Fund and the immunity grant appear somewhat different on paper, their legality in any form has yet to be determined where they remain under challenge: in the federal courts. All facets of the Fund plan are under review by federal judges in Florida and Virginia, and both of those judges may be taking further action as August unfolds.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams of Miami has issued an opinion leveling withering criticism of how the plan came about as a settlement of a lawsuit in her court. However, she has not ruled on the validity of either the potential payments or the immunity promise, even though she has treated them as the product of a bogus lawsuit.
Facing a demand by Trump’s lawyers that she put her July 13 ruling on hold this week, Judge Williams is seeking legal advice from a group of prominent private lawyers who have helped her earlier in the Trump case in her court. Trump, his sons and his firm have appealed her ruling to a federal appeals court, and are asking her in the meantime to postpone the proceedings in her court. The Florida case is Trump v. Internal Revenue Service.
In Virginia, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of Alexandria has temporarily barred any enforcement of the Fund plan and the immunity promise until she can rule on a Justice Department request to dismiss the case on the grounds that it is not a “live” controversy. It is unclear whether she will take into account the changes that Acting Attorney General Blanche announced Sunday night. The Virginia case is Floyd v. Justice Department.
