Blanche Gave Cornyn And Tillis Crap; Will It Be Enough? (Update)

After Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn said they were voting against confirmation of Todd Blanche for Attorney General until Blanche put it in writing, Blanche refused to do so, the hearing date for the vote was delayed by 92-year-old Chairman Chuck Grassley, and Trump, because he’s Trump, had to make it all about him.

The question remained whether Cornyn and/or Tillis were doing this for realsies, as if they suddenly found integrity that had gone missing all these years, or this was a negotiating position with the infamously transactional Trump for something to tide them over in their dottage. While the answer remains a mystery, Blanche has upped the ante by posting on one of the official Trump administration communication mechanisms two writings. The first deals with the “order” creating the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

I apologize for all the white space, but left it in just to make it clear that Blanche’s terse writing was not due to a shortage of paper.

The entire operative language consists of “The Attorney General’s May 18, 2926 Order establishing the Anti-Weaponization Fund (“Fund”) is rescinded and shall have no force and effect.

In other words, Blanche merely rescinds the old order, without any averment, sufficient or otherwise, that it won’t reappear under another name, by another order or by any other means the day after he’s confirmed. This is about as weaselly as it gets. More importantly, this is about as obviously weaselly, requiring neither a law degree nor any special insight to recognize as utter garbage. And if you think this is bad, Blanche’s other writing is far worse.

The writing, unsigned and unenforceably worthless if had actually said anything, says nothing. There was no “mutual release” relating to the immunity unilaterally conferred by Blanche upon Trump, his children and his business entities untethered to the sham time-barred and self-dealing suit against the IRS for the release of Trump’s tax returns by an employee of a government subcontractor who had already been prosecuted and sentenced for his actions.

But this writing, to the extent it says anything, only asserts that the immunity is retrospective, not prospective, such that it applies only to past wrongdoing by Trump, et al., and not future audits for future wrongdoing. In other words, this unlawful order granting retroactive immunity remains in full force as to every fraudulent tax return filed by Trump and family and businesses. This could also be read to mean that immunity applies after wrongdoing has been discovered and claimed rather than some anticipatory wrongdoing being investigated, thus rendering any investigation futile as there is nothing the government can do about it.

Having twitted this crap, Blanche has chosen to play Senators Cornyn and Tillis to test whether they are serious in their refusal to confirm Blanche or just negotiating, or looking for an off-ramp to avoid Trump’s vengeance for having failed to prove their loyalty to him by doing anything he desires.

Will the senators call bullshit or cave? If they are acting out of some newfound well of integrity, or shame perhaps, Blanche’s writings will be called out as they worthless garbage they obviously are, the next round of shams designed to pacify simpletons and pretend that the thing Trump insists he’s going to do isn’t going to happen.

If Cornyn and Tillis possess an iota of integrity, they will reject this nonsense and hold firm in their position that they will vote against Blanche’s confirmation. If they do anything else, even by taking seriously Blanche’s writings as if they satisfy either of the superficial demands put forth by the senators, then part of the question will be answered. They still have no integrity. The only question then is whether Trump bought them off or they caved out of fear of Trump.

Update: We have an answer. Cornyn and Tillis have issued a joint statement:

From the outset, we were clear that we needed a written document addressing our concerns on the IRS audit agreement and the anti-weaponization fund that included constraining the scope of audit protection by limiting it to the parties of the Settlement Agreement and legally ending the anti-weaponization fund.

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 and the scope does not extend beyond the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury, addressing concerns that multiple of our Republican colleagues share.

We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon.

Cornyn and Tillis join Senator Bill Cassidy as the epitome of cowardice.