“Overwhelming bipartisan opposition in Congress, which derailed Trump’s reconciliation package, and stinging rebukes by two federal judges have forced Donald Trump and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to put the brakes on their epically corrupt and collusive ‘settlement’ scheme. The judges’ orders have placed a temporary halt on Blanche’s efforts to plunder nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer dollars to create a slush fund for January 6 rioters, convicted criminals and MAGA foot soldiers while giving the Trump family and all their businesses a Super Pardon wiping out their violations of law, back taxes, and payments owed to the U.S. government.
“But we would be making a mistake if we treated this judicially compelled interruption as a final conclusion to this mad ripoff scheme. It is not close to the end of the story.
“The Department of Justice has grudgingly stated that it will ‘abide by the Court’s ruling,’ which simply maintains the status quo through June 12, which is less than two weeks away. Nothing in DOJ’s statement dissolves this blatantly unconstitutional fund which was neither authorized nor appropriated by Congress and which somehow purports to exercise judicial powers to decide legal cases and controversies without anything resembling legal principles or standards to guide them. Nothing in DOJ’s statement renounces the underlying unconstitutional purposes to pay the president beyond his official salary and to bankroll his private insurrectionist militia, both of which violate the plain text of the Constitution. Nothing in DOJ’s statement addresses the bipartisan outrage in Congress and the country over the fact that the Attorney General, who is supposed to be the defendant in the action, has colluded from the start to help the plaintiff channel billions of taxpayer dollars and civil and criminal amnesty to the Trump family. A temporary court order is necessary to halt this lawlessness, but it is not remotely sufficient. A provisional injunction is not a comprehensive and permanent safeguard.
“If the Administration and its allies in Congress are truly prepared to walk away from this dirty deal, they will have no objection to joining us in banning it outright by legislation. We’re not holding our breath. For people who want to restore the rule of law in America, Congress must move with bipartisan urgency to shut down this presidential plunder and bankrolling of a private insurrectionary militia. We must pass legislation this week to block presidential raids on the Judgment Fund for blatantly political purposes, once and for all.
“And we must also be explicitly clear that the ‘Todd Blanche Super Pardon’ is null and void. Congress must act to extinguish this outrageous claim of lifelong, lawless impunity for any misconduct, ‘whether presently known or unknown,’ which could include Jared Kushner’s corrupt business deals in the Middle East, no-bid government contracts Donald Trump Jr. steered to his companies, Donald Trump’s ongoing $100 million federal tax audit, any Epstein-related sexual assault allegations against Trump family members or any family members’ insider trading schemes.
“Finally, we must demand that Todd Blanche resign. An Attorney General who has disgraced himself by settling a bogus lawsuit with a $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded bonanza payout to convicted cop beaters and a Super Pardon wiping away any violations of federal law for an entire family and all their businesses has no place being America’s top law enforcement officer. If he is going to work for Donald Trump rather than the American people, Donald Trump should pay him along with his favored criminal convicts.”
