{"id":1472,"date":"2026-06-02T23:37:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T23:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=1472"},"modified":"2026-06-02T23:37:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T23:37:28","slug":"takeaways-from-blanches-house-testimony-anti-weaponization-fund-is-over-ban-on-trump-tax-audits-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=1472","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways from Blanche\u2019s House testimony: \u2018Anti-weaponization\u2019 fund is over, ban on Trump tax audits remains"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<button><br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n<span><svg>\n<\/svg><br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<span>Summary<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n<span><svg><\/svg><br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<span><svg><\/svg><br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<\/button><\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the Justice Department is abandoning its anti-weaponization fund.<\/li>\n<li>The $1.8 billion fund was designed to compensate people who say they were wrongly prosecuted by the government.<\/li>\n<li>Blanche also said an agreement barring the IRS from auditing President Donald Trump and his businesses will remain in place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<span>AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified to lawmakers Tuesday that the Justice Department has abandoned its plans for an \u201canti-weaponization fund\u201d to compensate people who say they were wrongly prosecuted by the government.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=1470\">Why Trump selected an acting director of national intelligence with no intel experience<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cWe are not moving forward with the fund, period,\u201d Blanche told the House Appropriations subcommittee at the hearing set to discuss the Justice Department\u2019s budget request.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cNot moving forward, ever?\u201d asked Democratic Rep. Grace Meng.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cCorrect,\u201d Blanche said.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Blanche, largely relaxed during the two-hour hearing, answered questions posed by Democrats with his standard incredulous glare and furrowed brow.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            His announcement on the comes one day after the administrated first signaled a willingness to scrap the fund, which was announced in a settlement between the Internal Revenue Service and President Donald Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization.\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n        A shift by the Justice Department<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            Abandoning the fund reflects an about-face for the department.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            At first, senior Justice Department officials insisted that they wouldn\u2019t change the details of the fund despite pushback from republicans, sources told CNN at the time. Blanche publicly backed it during his May 19 Senate testimony as the best way to \u201cchange the culture\u201d of weaponization.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            But after weeks of unrelenting pushback from congressional republicans, who claimed that there needed to be serious guardrails put in place to ensure that money was being used appropriately and threatened to hold up a separate piece of legislation, some allies began encouraging the president to scrap it entirely.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The Justice Department said vaguely on Monday that it would abide by a court ruling to pause the fund\u2019s creation but did not say what it would do if that ruling was lifted. Blanche\u2019s unequivocal statement during his Tuesday testimony is the first time an administration official definitively said that the fund had been discarded entirely.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Blanche said the \u201creasons for the fund,\u201d alleged weaponization of the justice system, \u201cremain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n<strong>Tax audit protections remain<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            As part of his testimony, the acting attorney general also said that \u201cnothing has changed\u201d in a second agreement that bars the IRS from bringing claims against Trump, his family or businesses for past tax issues will not be rescinded.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The tax term was quietly added to the settlement with the IRS in a hyperlink to a Justice Department press release last month after its initial announcement.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cIt\u2019s typical for to get rid of past ongoing audits,\u201d Blanche said defending the document, which he called an \u201cAttorney General order.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cIt\u2019s nothing that gives any sort of immunity in the future to the president or his family or his organizations,\u201d he said.\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n<strong>Nothing in writing<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            During a follow up question from Meng, who originally pressed Blanche on the anti-weaponization fund, the acting attorney general said he would not submit any filings rescinding the settlement agreement.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=1466\">Fetterman calls Platner a \u2018creep\u2019 after reports of extramarital sexting<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cI just want to make sure,\u201d Meng said, \u201care you going to issue a new memo in writing, rescinding that May 18 memo?\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Blanche, with a furrowed brow, replied: \u201cI\u2019m not committing to putting anything in writing.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cI don\u2019t know what the purpose of putting something in writing. I\u2019m telling you what we\u2019re doing,\u201d he added.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Meng said it would \u201crestore a lot of trust\u201d since Americans on \u201cboth sides of the aisle are concerned about it.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cI\u2019m just concerned because you\u2019re not under oath,\u201d she concluded, \u201cand I want to trust you, and I want to believe you. We all do, but putting it in writing would settle that issue.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n        Blanche testimony may solve political headache for Trump<br \/>\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            Republican leaders are hopeful that Blanche\u2019s commitment that the Justice Department is \u201cnot moving forward\u201d with the contentious fund will end a weekslong political headache for Trump. But it\u2019s too early to know for sure.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            A massive GOP immigration funding bill has been stalled in the Senate after Republicans revolted over the fund \u2014 with many especially anxious over the potential for January 6, 2021, rioters to get payouts.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Many Republicans are now spending Tuesday night reading over the fine print to see whether Blanche\u2019s remarks are enough.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            If enough are convinced, Senate GOP leaders believe they can begin advancing their big immigration funding bill in the coming days. But that could all be derailed, with rank-and-file frustration at the White House still high. GOP senators have been pressing for clarity and specifics from the Trump administration over the fund. It\u2019s not yet clear if a critical mass of Republicans are willing to move ahead.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Senate Majority Leader John Thune was asked if he has spoken to his hold outs since the Blanche testimony.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking to our members, continue to dialog with them and see where it goes,\u201d he said.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=1464\">Exclusive: House Ethics Committee investigating Rep. Jimmy Gomez over sexual misconduct allegations, sources say<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<em>CNN\u2019s Sarah Ferris and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified to lawmakers Tuesday that the Justice Department has abandoned its plans for an \u201canti-weaponization fund\u201d to compensate people who say they were wrongly prosecuted by the government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Takeaways from Blanche\u2019s House testimony: \u2018Anti-weaponization\u2019 fund is over, ban on Trump tax audits remains - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=1472\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Takeaways from Blanche\u2019s House testimony: \u2018Anti-weaponization\u2019 fund is over, ban on Trump tax audits remains - Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified to lawmakers Tuesday that the Justice Department has abandoned its plans for an \u201canti-weaponization fund\u201d to compensate people who say they were wrongly prosecuted by the government.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=1472\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-02T23:37:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=1472#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=1472\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be\"},\"headline\":\"Takeaways from Blanche\u2019s House testimony: \u2018Anti-weaponization\u2019 fund is over, ban on Trump tax audits remains\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-02T23:37:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=1472\"},\"wordCount\":929,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=1472#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/c77b12bc3bb953c31e94ce1275e584cd.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=1472#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=1472\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=1472\",\"name\":\"Takeaways from Blanche\u2019s House testimony: \u2018Anti-weaponization\u2019 fund is over, ban on Trump tax audits remains - 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