President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he would “push hard” to enact legislation that would offer payouts to people “badly treated” by the Obama and Biden administrations, his latest threat to resurrect the controversial fund.
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“It will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account, vowing to pass “the Anti-Weaponization Bill.” He added that he would keep Todd Blanche as acting attorney general if his nomination to run the Justice Department fails in the Senate, and blasted two GOP senators who blocked Blanche from advancing.
It was not immediately clear what legislation the president was referencing, and the White House did not immediately respond to questions about Trump’s post. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), one of the senators who had held up Blanche’s nomination over the fund, quickly criticized Trump’s comments.
“It’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal,” Tillis wrote on social media.
The Justice Department had proposed a $1.8 billion payout fund that Trump said would compensate people who claim they were improperly investigated by the government, but Democrats and some GOP lawmakers said the fund could inappropriately reward people such as those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A federal judge has warned the administration not to resurrect the plan, and Blanche, facing bipartisan backlash to the idea, has also insisted for weeks that the fund is dead.
But on Friday, Trump twice undermined Blanche’s pledge, first suggesting the fund — established to resolve his lawsuit against the IRS — was alive, and later conceding that it was dead but that he very much wished it weren’t.
Trump on Saturday singled out Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Tillis, who have emerged as the critical obstacles to confirming Blanche. The senators, who are not in the running for reelection after clashing with the White House, have said they won’t back down until the Trump administration commits to limiting provisions of a deal struck between the Justice Department and president to resolve a lawsuit he filed against the IRS over the leaking of his tax records.
The standoff pitting Cornyn and Tillis against the administration forced Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to cancel a scheduled committee vote on Blanche’s nomination Thursday once it became clear it did not have the support to pass.
The Justice Department and the senators spent much of last week swapping proposals and counterproposals that would alter the deal.
While Cornyn and Tillis at several points expressed optimism that they thought they were close to reaching an agreement with Blanche and the Justice Department, each time, they said, those talks have been derailed by the White House.
“I think as far as Blanche and the Department of Justice, we were pretty much on the same page,” Cornyn told reporters Thursday. “But then when the president got wind of it, he wasn’t.”
Grassley late Friday rescheduled the committee vote on Blanche’s nomination for Tuesday, although a statement from his office suggested the move was an effort to buy “more time for the White House to secure votes for the President’s nominee.”
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Meanwhile, the Senate is not expected to pass any legislation setting up a fund similar to the one the Justice Department agreed to create as part of its agreement with Trump to resolve the lawsuit he filed over the leak of his tax returns.
Senate Republicans revolted when the Justice Department announced the fund in May. Lawmakers left Washington without passing legislation to fund immigration enforcement agencies in protest. The Senate only passed the bill once Blanche testified that plans to set up the fund were dead.
Concern about the fund runs deep among Senate Republicans; a dozen of them voted for a failed amendment offered by Tillis in June that would have barred any federal funds from being used in connection with the fund.
Specifically, Cornyn and Tillis are seeking revisions, in writing, to two aspects of the Trump’s deal with the Justice Department.
They want Blanche to codify his public pledge that the administration will not move forward with the payout fund.
They are also seeking clarification of a separate provision that offered Trump, his family members and their businesses protection from past tax claims — a potentially lucrative benefit for a president who has often complained of burdensome IRS audits.
Cornyn has pressed Blanche to acknowledge that that provision only applies to Trump, the two of his sons who joined him as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and their primary business, the Trump Organization.
The senator has also sought assurances that the deal would not bar other agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, from investigating the Trumps or preclude the IRS from auditing members of the Trump family in the future.
Trump’s post Saturday comes amid what appears to be a renewed push by the administration to put pressure on the Senate to move forward with Blanche. Since Friday, several administration officials — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, Secretary of the Interior Brooke Rollins — have posted to social media in support of the nominee.
“The Senate should not leave for recess without confirming him as Attorney General,” Rubio wrote.
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