The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

About The Volokh Conspiracy Editorial Independence Who we are Books Volokh Daily Email Archives Search DMCA RSS

Todd Blanche for Attorney General?

Rescinding the egregious Slush Fund Order should not obscure the fact that Blanche was a central participant in, and possibly the architect of, a scheme to defraud the court and the American taxpayer. The one job he is surely not qualified for is the one he now seeks.

David Post | 8.5.2026 1:18 PM

Todd Blanche should not be the Attorney General of the United States, though it appears he is about to assume that office thanks to 50 Republican Senators* who are, it seems, going to confirm him for that position.

*As far as I am aware, Susan Collins is the only Republican Senator who has declared that she will vote against Blanche's nomination.

Senators Cronyn and Tillis withdrew their opposition when Blanche issued an order formally rescinding his earlier order setting up an "Anti-Weaponization Fund" as part of the "Settlement Agreement" reached between the IRS and our President, and limiting the "immunity" from tax liability granted to Trump and his children and associates by declaring that it only "applies retroactiviely."

The idea that this somehow is sufficient to warrant an appointment to be the chief federal law enforcement officer truly boggles the mind. The Settlement Agreement and the Anti-Weaponization Fund weren't just bad ideas; they were an attempt to perpetrate a fraud on the court and the American taxpayers, "ignor[ing] ethical norms, court rules, and legal authority to manipulate the judicial process [in order to] gild their efforts to gain unprecedented access to the public fisc with the patina of legitimacy."

Those are not my words; they are the words of Judge Kathleen Williams of SD Florida, in her July 13th Order imposing sanctions on the parties (our President and the I.R.S.) and the attorneys involved in the case (including Acting AG Blanche and Associate AG Stanley Woodward, as well as Daniel Epstein, signatory to the bogus "Settlement Agreement" as Counsel for the Plaintiffs).

More excerpts from Judge Williams' opinion are included below. Though her opinion is long (56 pages) and detailed, in the end she doesn't really uncover anything that wasn't already obvious to anyone who followed the whole "Settlement" shitshow at all closely:

"This action was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute. The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the Parties and counsel from its filing make plain that this was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law. . . ."

"This lawsuit was not brought to vindicate rights; it was brought to manipulate the judicial process to pursue benefits unavailable in litigation because the Parties were not adverse" . . . . 

"Plaintiffs improperly employed this lawsuit to justify a particular award in this matter—access to taxpayer funds and exemption from audits and other investigations—which was accomplished by leveraging control over Defendants. . . The Parties used the existence of federal litigation as a means of conferring legitimacy upon a course of action that they were unwilling to subject to judicial review. The context of the "settlement," the relationships of the people involved in negotiating and approving it, the ethical........

© Reason.com