Blanche assurances to senators leave Trump settlement intact

In the latest twist to the legal and political controversies embroiling President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday night shared documents on social media that seemed to clear a major hurdle to the top job.

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But while Blanche’s post appeared to address the concerns of two Senate Republicans standing in the way of his confirmation, it also drew skeptical reactions from former Justice Department officials and administration critics who questioned the legal significance of what he had offered.

Blanche walked back and clarified key elements of the department’s arrangements to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service: a $1.8 billion fund for alleged victims of government “weaponization” and immunity for Trump, his family members and the Trump Organization from audits of past tax filings.

The original documents that had sparked bipartisan outrage – the settlement with Trump calling for the fund, and a separate immunity order – remain unchanged, however. As long as those are intact, the door is open for officials, Trump or others in his orbit to try to enforce the terms in the future, some legal experts said.

“This just strikes me as a way to move the confirmation,” said Rupa Bhattacharyya, a former Justice Department official and legal director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law. “It’s not clear to me this has much permanent legal effect.” 

In response to questions about the two documents, the Justice Department shared a statement reiterating that Blanche rescinded his order to take steps to launch the fund and “restated and incorporated” his earlier testimony about the immunity arrangement.

Spokespeople for the White House and Trump’s personal legal team didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Blanche’s latest post doesn’t address Trump’s stance. The president has continued to express interest in the fund idea, saying he’d try to work with Congress to make it federal law. On Monday, he told reporters in the Oval Office that he hadn’t looked at the new documents Blanche shared but suggested they weren’t a big deal.

“I don’t know what they agreed,” Trump said. “I think Todd Blanche agreed to reconfirm things that he’s already said.”

Trump is also appealing a Florida federal judge’s order finding that he brought the IRS case in “bad faith” and slamming the Justice Department’s conduct in resolving it. As a penalty, the judge barred him and the IRS from referring to the settlement in any future official proceedings.

What’s in the latest documents shared by Blanche:

‘Anti-weaponization’ fund

The first document Blanche shared on Sunday, which he signed, invalidates his May 18 order launching the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. The fund was part of the settlement with Trump to end his case against the IRS. Trump’s oldest sons, Don Jr. and Erik, and the Trump Organization were also plaintiffs in that lawsuit, which sought to hold the agency liable for a leak of tax information several years ago. 

Even though Blanche rescinded the order he issued to execute the fund, critics say there’s nothing to stop Blanche or a future attorney general from moving ahead with the terms to create the fund at a later date.

Blanche backed away from the fund in response to swift GOP opposition and told lawmakers that it would not happen. But the department continued to face questions from judges and opponents about why the settlement agreement remained intact. The agreement states that Trump and his co-plaintiffs would have to sign off on any changes, meaning Blanche can’t amend it on his own.

Even without the fund, Trump and administration officials have other, pre-existing legal pathways to approve payouts of taxpayer dollars to his allies and supporters. The department has reached millions of dollars in settlements over the past year and a half, Bloomberg previously reported. 

Blanche notes pending lawsuits challenging the creation of the “anti-weaponization” fund, calling them “frivolous.” The department has sought to have these cases dismissed on the grounds that his earlier statements declaring the plan dead make litigation unnecessary. 

A Virginia federal judge has been unpersuaded by the department’s arguments so far, and said she would only toss a lawsuit if she received sworn declarations from Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirming the fund will not happen. Democracy Forward, an advocacy group involved in the Virginia case, denounced Blanche’s latest post.

“If the Justice Department truly intended to end the anti-weaponization fund on its own, it would submit the sworn declaration that the court in our matter requested, amend the agreement that created the fund, and make clear that it cannot be revived,” Skye Perryman, the group’s president, said in a statement. “Instead, DOJ and acting Attorney General Blanche appear to want to have their cake and eat it too.” 

Audit immunity

The second document that Blanche shared is a memo that features his office’s letterhead, but it isn’t signed and refers to Blanche in the third person. A Justice Department spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a question about the author. 

Bhattacharyya said the document is styled more like a press release than a formal order, although she noted that courts have accepted those types of statements as representing the department’s formal position. 

The document refers to a May 19 order that Blanche signed in tandem with the settlement of Trump’s IRS case, although it wasn’t a formal part of that agreement. The May 19 order barred the IRS and Treasury Department from investigating or pressing claims against Trump related to past tax filings. 

The latest memo that Blanche shared makes clear the immunity applies “only retroactively” — addressing a concern from lawmakers about the scope of legal protection for Trump — although his original directive included language to that effect.

Separate from the timing question, Republican Senator John Cornyn pressed Blanche during his confirmation hearing about whether the immunity would extend beyond the IRS and Treasury, since Blanche’s May 19 order referred to current or future matters before “other agencies or departments.” Blanche replied at the time that it only applied to the IRS and Treasury.

The new memo that Blanche shared stated that he “stands by” his testimony, and specifically his answers to Cornyn’s questions. 

The memo states that the department’s “interpretation” of the immunity order is that it only applies to “the named parties in the lawsuit.” The May 19 order included language referring to “related or affiliated individuals” and “related companies, affiliates, and subsidiaries” to Trump and his co-plaintiffs in the IRS case. 

Brandon DeBot, a former Biden administration tax adviser and policy director of the Tax Law Center at New York University School of Law, said in a statement that he didn’t think the latest clarification did enough to assuage concerns that other individuals or companies in Trump’s broader orbit could try to claim immunity.

“These assurances are not worth the paper they’re written on,” he said.

Even if the immunity only applies to Trump, his sons and the family business, that would still be a problem, said Dan Greenberg, a senior legal fellow at the Cato Institute.

“Among other things, Blanche is responsible for protecting the interests of the Treasury and safeguarding the interests of America’s taxpayers,” Greenberg said. “I think that the very small damages the president suffered cannot be realistically compared to the very large value of the immunity from IRS scrutiny.”