Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told House lawmakers on Tuesday that the Justice Department will not move forward with its $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund.”
“We’re not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche said during a House appropriations subcommittee hearing.
Blanche’s confirmation that the DOJ is abandoning plans entirely comes one day after the agency put out a statement saying it would abide by a judge’s order halting the creation of the fund.
“You’re right that there’s a date in the case in the Eastern District of Virginia in June, but we are not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche confirmed. “Period.”
He went on to defend the creation of the fund, which was part of a settlement agreement with President Donald Trump over his lawsuit against the IRS, asserting that “there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them.”
“The reasons for the fund, I think, remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche said.
“Not moving forward ever?” asked Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), the ranking member of the subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies.
“Correct,” Blanche responded.
The DOJ’s Monday statement regarding the fund came after significant GOP opposition to the fund, derailing Republican leadership’s plans to pass a second reconciliation bill ahead of Trump’s June 1 deadline before Congress recessed for Memorial Day last month.
But the statement did not go far enough to assuage GOP concerns about the fund, with lawmakers wanting more assurances the Trump administration would not pick it back up before moving forward with plans to pass the party-line budget bill.
In his testimony, Blanche declined Democratic demands to put his assurances in writing that the DOJ would no longer pursue the fund, but said that “notwithstanding what we do” in litigation against the settlement, the agency would not pick up plans to reinstate the fund.
Following the subcommittee hearing, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) told the Washington Examiner he was not satisfied with the acting attorney general’s testimony.
“I don’t know why he’s resisting putting that in writing,” Ivey said. “Because you could imagine a scenario where somebody files a claim. And I guess they would say there’s nothing to file for, but if it actually got to a court, a judge could say, ‘Well, you got this thing saying there’s going to be it, and there’s nothing to write in saying there’s not.’”
“It’s not like the word of the attorney general is etched in stone or anything, so I don’t know,” Ivey continued. “Seems like if it was important enough to say it’s going to be created in writing, it’s important enough to make this position clear in writing as well.”
SENATE REPUBLICANS WANT ASSURANCE ANTI-WEAPONIZATION FUND IS DEAD FOR GOOD
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who spoke with Blanche ahead of his testimony, told reporters earlier Tuesday that he expected Blanche’s remarks would “create the certainty” needed for the Senate to proceed with reconciliation this week. However, he went on to say he was not “guaranteeing that happens yet.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told the Washington Examiner ahead of Blanche’s testimony that he would vote to block the fund if it were offered as an amendment in the reconciliation package.
David Sivak, Ramsey Touchberry, and Kaelan Deese contributed to this report.
