Acting AG Todd Blanche Faces House Hearing Over Trump IRS Shield, $1.8B Fund, and Withheld Epstein F [O59FZNXILEp]
Acting AG Todd Blanche Faces House Hearing Over Trump IRS Shield, $1.8B Fund, and Withheld Epstein Files Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told the House Appropriations subcommittee that the Justice Department is permanently abandoning the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, which had been designed to compensate people who say they were wrongly prosecuted. Speaking to Rep. Grace Meng, Blanche said, 'We are not moving forward with the fund, period,' and confirmed it would not move forward ever. When pressed to put the reversal in writing, he declined, telling Meng, 'I'm not committing to putting anything in writing.' On a separate matter, Blanche said 'nothing has changed' in an agreement barring the IRS from bringing claims against Trump, his family, or businesses for past tax issues. He personally signed the 19 addendum protecting Trump, his family, and related business entities from audits and enforcement on returns filed before the settlement, and barring DOJ prosecutions based on 'Lawfare and/or Weaponization.' Blanche characterized it as an 'Attorney General order' that gives no future immunity. Rep. Rosa DeLauro said the addendum gave Trump's family 'a tax immunity to the tune of about $100 million,' and noted the Save America PAC paid Blanche nearly $10 million between March 2024 and December 2024 as Trump's personal defense attorney, raising conflict of interest concerns. Blanche replied, 'Not true,' called it 'typical to get rid of past ongoing audits,' and said, 'It's nothing that gives any sort of immunity in the future to the president or his family or his organizations.' Rep. Madeleine Dean accused the DOJ of withholding more than 3 million documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein criminal investigation and pressed Blanche on compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed with bipartisan support and was signed by President Trump. Blanche said, 'we have complied with the law,' while Dean stated he previously told her the 3 million documents were 'all duplicative, and they include another guy named Epstein,' which Blanche denied saying. Dean also questioned why many unredacted files were available only to members of Congress at the DOJ, telling the hearing, 'the president has lied about being on Epstein's plane, and the unredacted files prove that.' 📺 This video and many more on cvrdnews.com ⬅️ Left: Left coverage frames the hearing as evidence the DOJ is dismantling accountability tools while quietly preserving Trump family protections, foregrounding Blanche's refusal to put the fund's death in writing and the persistence of the IRS audit shield. It elevates Democratic questioners like Grace Me ➡️ Right: Right coverage frames the story narrowly around the end of the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, treating Blanche's announcement as the headline development. It foregrounds the Trump administration ditching the fund and downplays the audit shield, the Epstein file dispute, and the conflict of in 🌐 Social Pulse: @AP, @Reuters, @CNN, and @FoxNews all reported that Acting AG Todd Blanche told the House Appropriations hearing the DOJ will not move forward with the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund after Republican senators pushed back. @nytimes highlighted that despite scrapping the payout, Blanche insiste #shorts #news #breakingnews #unfiltered #coverednews #cvrd