The nearly $2 billion fund Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted was “dead” to salvage his confirmation is anything but, as the Justice Department now moves to revive the legal effort behind it.
The DOJ notified a federal judge Friday that it is appealing to the 11th Circuit, Democracy Docket reported, challenging U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ July ruling that gutted President Donald Trump’s attempt to sue himself.
Williams found that the $10 billion lawsuit Trump and his two eldest sons filed against the IRS was “improper,” brought only to justify an extraordinary settlement with his own Justice Department. That deal would have created a $1.776 billion fund, a nod to 1776, to pay Trump allies who claimed “weaponization,” a pool that could have included Jan. 6 rioters. The judge, who concluded Trump “effectively” controlled both sides, called the case “non-adversarial, collusive, and jurisdictionally improper.”
The fund drew bipartisan fury and nearly sank Blanche, a former Trump defense lawyer who signed the settlement. To win over Republican holdouts, he told lawmakers during his August confirmation that the fund was kaput. But he pointedly refused a judge’s request to put that in writing, and the settlement’s most valuable piece for Trump, a provision shielding him, his family and his businesses from IRS audits, remains in force.
It is unclear exactly what the DOJ is seeking on appeal. Williams’ order did not formally dissolve the settlement, but her findings built a record that could later void it. She also referred Trump’s personal attorney for possible sanctions and flagged Blanche to the New York bar, where he already faces ethics complaints.
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