Attorney General Todd Blanche got an earful from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) on Monday after a Senate Appropriations hearing devolved into a heated confrontation over the Justice Department’s controversial anti-weaponization fund — and whether a pardoned child molester could collect from it.
The fireworks started when Van Hollen pressed Blanche on a deeply troubling case: a Trump pardon recipient who allegedly molested two children after receiving clemency and then tried to buy their silence by promising them money he expected to receive from the DOJ fund.
“Can you commit to making the rule so that that person is not eligible for a payout under this fund?” Van Hollen demanded.
Blanche’s response was immediate and combative. “You’re obviously lying in your question,” he shot back, before using air quotes around the term “slush fund” — a move that visibly enraged the Maryland Democrat.
“Mr. Attorney General! Don’t ever do that again!” Van Hollen snapped.
Van Hollen pushed back hard, insisting he was simply reporting what the pardon recipient had said. “I am reporting what he said — on the expectation that he hoped to get some of the funds from a payout.”
Blanche deflected, arguing the fund didn’t exist at the time the individual made those statements. But Van Hollen wasn’t buying it.
“This is the fund that the president and all of you have been telegraphing all along that you’re going to use to help the president’s friends,” the senator fired back.
The exchange ended with a pointed warning from Van Hollen that landed like a thunderclap.
“Do you know that it is a criminal offense to lie to Congress?”
“I am very well aware of that,” Blanche replied.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Van Hollen said. “Thank you.”
The confrontation comes as the DOJ’s anti-weaponization fund has drawn intense scrutiny from Democrats who argue it amounts to a slush fund for Trump allies and January 6 defendants. Trump has issued more than 1,500 pardons to January 6 participants, one of the largest mass clemency actions in American history.
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