Video by Ben Meiselas. Article by Brett Meiselas.
At 11:09 p.m. ET Sunday night, less than 36 hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on his nomination to become attorney general, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche dropped two Department of Justice documents that were supposed to solve the biggest obstacle standing between him and confirmation.
Let’s be absolutely clear: these documents are not the legal fix they are purported to be, but instead, they are political cover. The move is nothing more than legal sleight of hand to dupe the media and get the remaining “concerned” Republican senators on board.
For nearly a week, Republican Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn had blocked Blanche’s nomination over two corrupt actions taken by the Trump Justice Department in May: the creation of the so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund that sets aside $1.776 billion to pay off January 6 rioters, fraudsters, and other Trump allies, and a settlement agreement that gave Donald Trump and his unprecedented IRS audit protections.
The senators insisted they needed written changes before they would move Blanche’s nomination.
Late Sunday night, Blanche delivered exactly what they needed—not necessarily what they had demanded. It was all merely cover.
Within minutes, Tillis and Cornyn declared victory.
“From the outset, Senator John Cornyn and I were clear that we needed a written document addressing our concerns on the IRS audit agreement and the anti-weaponization fund,” Tillis said in a joint statement. “We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund. Additionally, the Department has acknowledged in a binding written order that the audit settlement is limited to the plaintiffs…”
The senators concluded by saying they looked forward to advancing Blanche’s nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
The problem is that the documents Blanche released don’t actually do what the senators say they do.
The centerpiece of Sunday’s announcement isn’t an amended settlement agreement. It isn’t a renegotiated contract. It isn’t a new agreement signed by all of the parties.
Instead, it consists of two unilateral DOJ documents: an order “rescinding” the Anti-Weaponization Fund and a memorandum explaining how the Department now says it interprets the May 19 settlement.
As always, read the fine print.
The settlement agreement itself—the legally operative document—contains its own modification clause. It states that the agreement “may be modified only with the written agreement of the Parties.”
Sunday night’s package contains no such written agreement.
There are no signatures from Donald Trump. None from Donald Trump Jr. None from Eric Trump. None from the Trump Organization. None from any of the other parties whose signatures would ordinarily be required to amend the contract.
The agreement that governs the parties’ rights remains exactly where it was before Blanche’s announcement.
What changed is DOJ’s characterization of it.
That is a significant difference.
A party to a contract can announce how it currently interprets an agreement. That does not rewrite the agreement itself. Sunday’s memorandum reflects the Department’s present legal position, but it does not replace the language the parties actually signed.
If Blanche truly intended to modify the settlement, the obvious vehicle would have been an amended settlement executed by every party, exactly as the agreement itself requires.
Instead, DOJ released a memorandum.
The same pattern appears in the handling of the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
Blanche rescinded the May 18 order establishing the fund, allowing supporters to claim the issue had been resolved. But rescinding one administrative order does not eliminate the authority that created it. Nothing in Sunday’s documents prevents a future attorney general—or Blanche himself, if confirmed—from issuing another order establishing a substantially similar fund.
In other words, the mechanism survives even if this particular order does not. The “rescinding” of the order is essentially worthless and can be undone in an instant. Tillis and Cornyn, in fact, got nothing they actually demanded. At the end of the day, it’s all theater.
The timing of the announcement, of course, makes the purpose difficult to ignore.
The documents appeared at 11:09 p.m. Eastern on a Sunday night, just before the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on Blanche’s nomination. Cornyn and Tillis had been the principal Republican holdouts. Shortly after receiving the documents, both senators announced they had what they needed and pledged to move Blanche forward.
Politically, the strategy worked almost instantly. Legally, nothing has really changed.
The documents do not amend the settlement agreement. They do not replace its language. They do not carry the signatures required by the settlement’s own modification clause. They instead present DOJ’s current interpretation while leaving the underlying agreement intact. And interpretations are not binding. They can always change.
For senators looking for a reason to vote yes, Sunday night’s announcement provided a way to save face; a way to act like someone took a principled stand, when the reality is the opposite.
Again, always check the fine print.
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