U.S. President Donald Trump moved to revive the large-scale "judicial victims fund" that he had held back for a while to pressure the confirmation of his closest aide, Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche. As dissenting Republicans blocked the nominee's confirmation, he pulled the controversial fund card—fiercely opposed by them—back onto the table in a bid to push through head-on.
On Aug. 1, according to reports from major outlets including the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the New York Times (NYT), President Trump said on the social media platform Truth Social that if the Senate does not confirm nominee Blanche, he will keep him as acting attorney general and push through the related bill. President Trump said, "Todd Blanche was the voice of reason," adding, "It (the fund) will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done." President Trump told reporters on July 31 that the plan to pursue the fund had fallen through, but he reversed course the very next day.
The judicial victims fund is a $1.8 billion (about 2.6 trillion won) pool designed to pay compensation to those who claim they were wrongfully prosecuted under a past Democratic administration. The fund was first conceived during the settlement process in May of a lawsuit filed against the government over the 2019 incident in which an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contractor illegally leaked President Trump's tax records. Some later warned that the fund could devolve into a vehicle to compensate participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. Inside and outside politics, including among some Republican lawmakers, there was a torrent of criticism that taxpayer money was being used to reward political allies.
Blanche's confirmation is currently blocked by opposition from Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both are Republicans, but with their terms ending, they have no need to cater to President Trump. The two Republican senators are urging the scrapping of the fund plan. They also set as a condition for confirmation a written guarantee that the clause in the settlement exempting the Trump family from tax audits will not be expanded to others. Earlier, nominee Blanche offered a compromise to abandon the fund while keeping the audit exemption clause, but failed to persuade the senators.
In response to the threat to revive the fund, Tillis said it was an attempt by "President Trump to inappropriately set up another fake fund or pressure Congress to vote on a bill that a majority of Senate Republicans would oppose, in order to resurrect a slush pot for thugs." He added, "It is regrettable that Todd Blanche, whom I believe is fit for the position, is unable to be confirmed because of this reversal."
Sen. Charles Grassley, who leads the Judiciary Committee, postponed the confirmation vote that had been scheduled, pushing it to Aug. 4 to reconcile differences. As President Trump seeks to install a close aide as the head of the Department of Justice and clashes with a Congress trying to rein him in reach a peak, uncertainty over control of the judiciary is likely to persist for the time being.