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Blanche confirms Trump administration has abandoned $1.8bn fund meant to compensate president's allies
Acting attorney general Todd Blanche has said that the Trump administration is scrapping plans to create a $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund meant to compensate the president’s allies after fierce political backlash and setbacks in the courts.
“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche said, adding that this will remain true even after a federal court’s order to block the fund expires on 12 June.
Blanche continued to defend the principle behind the idea, but confirmed that it had been abandoned:
The reasons for the fund is something that President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact 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.
His confirmation during his House committee appearance comes in response to mounting pressure from Republicans for reassurances that the justice department’s plans were off the table before they would move forward with legislation funding Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies.
Key events
Chris Stein
in Washington
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner just exited the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee after meeting for just shy of two hours.
Dozens of reporters waited outside along with a group of protesters, but Platner departed the meeting via a side door, and did not speak to the press.
Provision ‘forever’ barring IRS from auditing Trump’s past tax returns to remain in place, Blanche says
Per my colleague Sam Levine, while the federal government is abandoning an effort to create a $1.8bn secretive fund to compensate Donald Trump’s allies, it is maintaining an agreement that prohibits the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from auditing Trump, his family and related entities.
After confirming that the Trump administration is “not moving forward with the fund, period,” acting attorney general Todd Blanche later added that the DOJ would continue granting immunity to Trump and his family members on tax matters before the agreement was reached last month.
“Nothing has changed with that,” Blanche said, denying representative Rosa DeLauro’s statment that the tax order would give “blanket immunity” to Trump and his associates from future investigations.
Blanche confirms Trump administration has abandoned $1.8bn fund meant to compensate president's allies
Acting attorney general Todd Blanche has said that the Trump administration is scrapping plans to create a $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund meant to compensate the president’s allies after fierce political backlash and setbacks in the courts.
“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche said, adding that this will remain true even after a federal court’s order to block the fund expires on 12 June.
Blanche continued to defend the principle behind the idea, but confirmed that it had been abandoned:
The reasons for the fund is something that President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact 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.
His confirmation during his House committee appearance comes in response to mounting pressure from Republicans for reassurances that the justice department’s plans were off the table before they would move forward with legislation funding Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies.
Mullin refuses to commit to following 'politicized' court orders for DHS
Ealier, homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin repeatedly refused to commit to following the numerous court orders from judges who have ruled that the Department of Homeland Security has acted illegally, suggesting – in true Trumpian fashion – that the courts are politicized.
In his first appearance before lawmakers since his confirmation in March, Mullin told the Senate appropriations committee that the DHS “will never break the constitution, and we’re not going to break the law”. But he also declined to commit to saying he would abide by rulings from judges.
“If we didn’t think courts were politicized, then I would probably be able to answer that, but we see courts over and over again that use their bench for their political opinion, not just the rule of law,” he said.
Asked by ranking member Chris Murphy what he meant, Mullin said: “What I’m saying is we’ll enforce the law and we’re never going to break the constitution.”
Murphy pulled him up on that, saying that Mullin was stating that he would not follow court orders. Mullin said Murphy was “putting words” in his mouth and again said he would not break the constitution.
“This is a really important discussion for us to have, because this is - whether you want to believe it or not - at the root of our disagreement,” Murphy said. “It is very hard for us to figure out how to fund an agency that is violating the law.”
In her opening remarks directed at acting attorney general Todd Blanche, Democratic representative Rosa DeLauro wasted no time in slamming the proposed “slush fund to pay out violent criminals who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers [in the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack]”.
“This administration has engaged in what are perhaps the most brazen acts of flagrant corruption I’ve ever seen,” said DeLauro, of Connecticut, calling the fund a “corrupt payout scheme for the president and his allies”.
Citing the federal court order blocking the fund from paying out any claims, “I am not at all convinced that this administration has given up,” she said, adding the Blanche had “left [himself] a lot of room” in his opening statement.
Citing the lack of oversight, standards and transparency over the fund, as well as Blanche’s background as Trump’s former personal lawyer, DeLauro said it was “unconscionable” that taxpayer dollars could be used “to pay off just about anyone for just about anything”, including people who were convicted of violence during the Capitol attack.
She added that it was “staggering” and “shameful” given the number of Americans struggling to pay for food, utilities, gas, childcare and healthcare.
Further to that, earlier Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer refused to share details with reporters at his weekly news conference, saying only: “I met with Graham Platner today. We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.”
Chris Stein
in Washington
I’m outside the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in DC, where Graham Platner, whose campaign for Maine’s Senate seat has been upended by revelations that he sent sexually explicit texts to women outside his marriage, is reportedly meeting with top lawmakers.
I haven’t spotted anyone in office yet, but there is a group of demonstrators standing outside the building’s driveway carrying signs reading, “Graham is a fraud”, and otherwise criticizing his candidacy. One man is shirtless and wearing a towel around his waist — clearly a nod to one of the photos Platner is accused of sending on the app Kik, a private messaging platform some use for sexting.
Now, they’re chanting: “Delete your Kik!”
Blanche to face lawmakers after GOP leaders state Trump's $1.8bn 'anti-weaponization' fund 'off the table'
At the top of the hour, we will hear from acting attorney general Todd Blanche as he testifies to the House appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, science, and related agencies. He’s expected to face questions about the DOJ’s so-called “anti-weaponization” fund, among other issues.
Yesterday, the justice department announced it would comply with a recent court ruling blocking the contentious $1.8bn fund to compensate his allies, which has faced fierce bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill since it was announced two weeks ago.
Multiple outlets reported yesterday that Donald Trump may be mulling a retreat from the idea amid the growing political backlash. Other reports indicated only that the DOJ paused the program to comply with a court order. Perhaps Blanche will tell us more.
Republicans have expressed concerns over a lack of oversight and the possibility that individuals convicted in connection with violence during the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol could receive payouts. Many are also alarmed at the optics of using taxpayer dollars for payouts to political allies during a cost-of-living crisis.
Democrats have derided the fund as a $1.8bn “Maga slush fund”, slamming it as “corruption in broad daylight”.
Senate Republicans, who have rarely broken with Trump, threatened to revolt and join forces with Democrats to block the fund.
Earlier today, House speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he had told Trump they didn’t have the numbers. “I believe it is off the table for consideration,” he said, though he defended the idea behind the fund as “very noble”.
I told him it was a difficult prospect right now given our vote tallies. Look, I understand the intent behind it was a very noble thing. The government clearly was weaponized against Americans, the Department of Justice itself was. I don’t think it was fully understood and that’s what made it a difficult thing.
Senate majority leader John Thune, who has in contrast been an outspoken critic of the fund and called on the White House to “shut it down”, said he expected the plan to be binned following a “robust” conversation with Blanche today.
Asked if he believed the fund was dead, Thune said:
After speaking with the acting attorney general, that is correct.
Thune added that Blanche had previewed for him what he planned to say at his testimony this afternoon regarding the fund.
I think his statements are going to be very definitive, very clear, and create the certainty that I hope all of our members and House members need.
At his hearing before the Senate foreign relations committee earlier, Marco Rubio told lawmakers that he believes Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is still alive.
“I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries,” Rubio said, noting that Khamenei has not been seen publicly since succeeding his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes in February. The US has said the new supreme leader was injured in those strikes.
Rubio was also asked whether the US is willing to lift sanctions or release frozen Iranian funds as part of its efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz.
“Any sanctions relief is condition-based, which means it has to be in return for the reason why those sanctions were put in place in the first place, which is their nuclear program,” the secretary of state replied. “If they agree to give up those things, there will be sanctions relief associated with their commitment and compliance.”
Rubio also denied that the US would agree to lift sanctions or release frozen assets in exchange for Tehran reopening the strait. “No, that’s not been discussed. That’s not been offered,” he said.
Thune says Pulte has 'lengthy road ahead of him' if he wants to serve as DNI permanently
Earlier today, Senate majority leader John Thune weighed in on Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence, which has set off alarm bells in Washington.
Thune told reporters that Pulte could face a “lengthy road ahead” if Trump were to nominate him to the position permanently.
Asked if he had concerns that Pulte would weaponize his new position in the intelligence community, Thune said:
Well, we don’t need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there.
He added that “I’ve just heard about” the appointment, and am “trying to get more information about the current state of their thinking about that position”.
“If he’s somebody that wants that position permanently, he’s got, as you all know, a lengthy road ahead of him,” Thune said.
Trump says he will attend and speak at rescheduled White House Correspondents’ dinner in July
The White House Correspondents’ dinner has been rescheduled to 24 July, Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents Association, announced today.
In an email to White House reporters, Jiang said details about the location, tickets and the programming “will follow soon” – and that the event “will feature significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures”.
The WHCA decided to re-schedule the dinner “after thoughtful consideration and input from our members”, said Jiang, adding that the dinner will be a more “intimate gathering” than the original event.
When gunfire interrupted this year’s event, it further clarified the WHCA’s mission to advocate for the freedoms that are protected in the first amendment. We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for.
As you will remember, the dinner originally took place on 25 April in a Washington hotel but was disrupted by a shooting outside the ballroom. The gunman was charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump.
Trump confirmed in a post on his Truth Social platform that he plans to attend and speak at July’s event. “I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out. In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!” he said.
Trump added: “This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling.”
Trump went on to suggest that the new event will be held at the Waldorf Astoria, which his Trump Organization used to own, though this hasn’t been confirmed. After the shooting, security concerns were raised over the original venue, the Washington Hilton hotel.
Donald Trump has made four visits to a doctor since starting his second term, prompting speculation about his health despite the White House’s insistence that there’s no cause for concern. At the just-concluded briefing, Mehmet Oz, a trained physician, offered his take on why the president has repeatedly consulted a doctor.
“I think he likes the results really well. He aces the test every single day, and I do actually believe that he is curious to make sure everything is going in the right direction,” Oz said.
“He’s a very meticulous person in so many ways that are often underappreciated, but for him to want to know all the numbers and keep on top of them, it’s the same reason he calls people at odd hours, because something’s on his mind. He wants to deal with it.”
Mehmet Oz, the administrator of Medicare and Medicaid, defended Donald Trump’s nomination of Bill Pulte to serve as Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
“I think Bill is a great guy. I know him socially. I’ve not worked with him in this current job, and, but … I do trust the President’s judgment. He is a very sharp and quick study of people, their emotional with abilities, and their ability to persevere in the face of hardship. So I have confidence in this decision,” Oz said at the ongoing White House press briefing, which he is hosting.
He later brushed off a question about if Pulte – who currently leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency – has the experience required to replace Tulsi Gabbard, who was pushed out as DNI last month.
Ousted Republican senators question Pulte's qualifications for intelligence job
Bill Pulte will need to be confirmed by the Senate to serve as Director of National Intelligence, but there are already signs that Republican senators who are leaving office after breaking with Donald Trump are uneasy with his nomination.
Punchbowl News reports that Thom Tillis, the North Carolina senator who is retiring after refusing to support Trump’s signature domestic policy bill last year, noted that Pulte played a major role in accusing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud, an investigation the senator opposed. “I got a real issue with that,” Tillis told Punchbowl.
Also skeptical was John Cornyn, the Texas senator who last week lost his primary to Trump-endorsed attorney general Ken Paxton. Here’s what Semafor reports Cornyn said:
I don’t see any evidence of his qualifications for that job, but I’m willing to listen.
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who lost his primary last month after Trump intervened, was similarly skeptical, telling Semafor:
He doesn’t seem qualified.
Donald Trump angrily yelled and cursed at Benjamin Netanyahu over the Israeli prime minister’s threats to resume airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Axios reports.
“What the fuck are you doing?” the US president reportedly shouted at Netanyahu during the phone call yesterday. The report, which has been contested in Israeli media, cited a US official summarising Trump’s remarks to Netanyahu:
You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.
The phone call came after Netanyahu had ordered the Israeli military to resume bombing the southern Dahiya area of Beirut to allegedly target Hezbollah. The Israel Defense Forces told Lebanese civilians to evacuate areas of southern Beirut – as they have repeatedly over the last three months - causing thousands of people to flee their homes once again. In addition to the most recent threats on Beirut, Israel has also been expanding its ground invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon.
Iran on Monday threatened to suspend peace talks with the US over Israel’s ongoing campaign in southern Lebanon. Tehran has insisted Lebanon should be covered by a ceasefire agreement meant to facilitate negotiations to open the strait of Hormuz and lift a US blockade of Iranian ports.
The phone call between Trump and Netanyahu came on the heels of that announcement, which would effectively freeze talks days after Trump had claimed negotiators had reached a preliminary deal that he was considering whether to sign.
My colleague Andrew Roth has this report:
Rubio grilled on US strikes on alleged drug boats
Senators Tim Kaine and Rand Paul grilled Marco Rubio over the criteria used for the Trump administration’s repeated strikes on small boats in international waters.
The US military has killed at least 201 people in strikes that have destroyed 63 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, according to a recent CNN tally.
The military and Trump administration have always claimed those boats were trafficking drugs – but they have never provided evidence for those claims.
Kaine, a Democrat, said that classified briefings made him aware that “evidence of narcotics on the boat” is not part of the criteria used to decide to strike boats.
Asked for an explanation, Rubio said he couldn’t get into the specifics of targeting criteria.
But I can tell you the one thing that is obvious is that the targeting criteria is not single source. In essence, there are multiple checks.
Some strike targets have been abandoned when they did not meet the criteria or when officials had “doubts” about the targets, Rubio added. “I can tell you, they do walk away from strikes,” he said.
Separately, Paul, a Republican, also criticized the attacks, telling Rubio: “I think it’s interesting that the three secret criteria we’re using to blow up the boats doesn’t include whether they have drugs on board.”
Coast Guard statistics show that historically about one in four suspected drug boats do not ultimately have drugs on board, Paul added.
“We make mistakes. We see something suspicious about the boat, we stop them, and they don’t have drugs on board,” he said.
Trump signs executive order seeking early access to new AI releases
Sanya Mansoor
Donald Trump has signed an executive order to create a voluntary framework for the federal government to vet powerful new AI models before they are released.
The highly anticipated order represents an attempt by the president to tighten his grip on cybersecurity and national security threats posed by AI, tacking against his earlier deregulatory stance.
Under the new rules, tech companies would be asked to share their AI models with the government for a voluntary review, up to 30 days before a public release. The Trump administration says doing so will allow them to improve national security, particularly with regards to cybersecurity.
The executive order stops short of imposing mandatory review requirements on tech companies building AI models, a rumored feature of earlier versions of the executive order. Some of Trump’s more hardline Maga supporters had been pushing him for a stricter process, while tech industry supporters advocated for keeping the reins loose.
Still, the executive order is yet another sign that Trump is moving away from his initial low-regulation approach to AI. One of his first actions as president was to revoke a Biden-era executive order that established standards for safely developing AI.
As we reported earlier, Donald Trump has tapped close ally Bill Pulte to serve as the country’s top intelligence official, days after Tulsi Gabbard announced her exit from the role.
Pulte – who has no national security experience – will serve as acting director of national intelligence.
He is currently the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and the heir to a home construction company fortune. He has used his role at the powerful housing agency, which oversees regulations of the federal housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to publicly level of a string of extraordinary allegations at Trump’s political opponents and enemies.
Pulte, a major GOP donor, was appointed by Trump to head the FHFA. He has accused targets of Trump including US Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook of committing mortgage fraud. Cook has denied wrongdoing.
“William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America,” Trump said on his Truth Social Platform. Pulte will remain director of the FHFA, Trump said.
Pulte has faced growing questions over his referrals of alleged fraud since taking over the FHFA. One former high-ranking official described his handling of the Cook case as “very bizarre” last year.
Democratic senator Mark Warner, who is vice-chairman of the US Senate select committee on intelligence, said:
This appointment speaks volumes about what this president expects from the nation’s top intelligence official. Rather than selecting a respected national security professional capable of delivering independent judgments, the president has chosen an official who has demonstrated not just willingness but eagerness to use the authorities of government to pursue political retribution.
Americans have already seen Mr Pulte use the powers of his office at the Federal Housing Finance Agency to pursue the president’s grievances and lend credibility to dubious prosecutions of President Trump’s perceived political opponents.
Trump is “not looking for an intelligence leader who will follow the facts or speak truth to power”, Warner argued, “but rather someone who will be willing to shape intelligence around the president’s wishes, regardless of the cost to the American people”.
