Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Legal LOOPHOLES could allow Trump to RESTORE $1.776B fund, IRS immunity

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Legal LOOPHOLES could allow Trump to RESTORE $1.776B fund, IRS immunity · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on advancing Todd
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Blanche's nomination to become Attorney General on a permanent basis.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: The Peers, President Trump's former personal attorney, now has the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: support he needs after he issued a pair of orders
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: late Sunday night rescinding the President's one point seven seven
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: six billion dollar so called Anti Weaponization Fund. Blanche's order
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: also clarified the President's settlement with the IRS for tax
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: audit immunity for Trump and his family members that it
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: only applies to claims open at the time of the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: settlement and does not protect the President or his family
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: from future tax filings. Those two one page memos from
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Blanche were enough to win the support now of Republican
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Senators John Cornet of Texas and Tom Tillis of North Carolina,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: who had blocked the confirmation vote because of that fund.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: The senators put out a joint statement yesterday, writing, quote
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: from the outset, we were clear that we needed a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: written document addressing our concerns. The stors go on to write,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: we want to express our gratitude to mister Blanche and
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: his staff were working with us on this, and we
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: look forward to voting to advance his nomination. Yesterday, MS
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: NOW White House reporter Jake Trailer asked the President about
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  Speaker 1: Blanche's memos.
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  Speaker 2: President Todd Blanche, I didn't look at it. All I
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: know is that Todd Blanche is great. He's going to
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: do a great job. Everybody knows it, and I understand
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: there's been a sign off, But I don't know what
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: they agreed. I think Todd Blanche agreed to reconfirm things
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: that he's already said, and what he said was okay.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: But this morning there are concerns about legal loopholes the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: president could use to restore that taxpayer fund of nearly
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: one point eight billion dollars. Okay, Lie, So that's a
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: lot to comb through right there. Effectively, Todd Blanche, who
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: looks like he's going to now make it throughout of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the Judiciary Committee at the very least, and could become
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the next Attorney General of the United States, put out
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: these memos to kind of assuage the two Senators Tom
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Tillis and John Cornyn. Now they say, we're good, thanks
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: for the written memos. But when you dig into what
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  Speaker 1: he actually wrote in those memos, what do you see?
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  Speaker 3: I see a lot of possibility left for the President
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  Speaker 3: to restore the Anti Weaponization Fund. Let's start, Wally with
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  Speaker 3: the fact the Anti Weaponization Fund is a creation of
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: a settlement agreement between President Trump, the Irs, and the
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  Speaker 3: Department of Justice, and nothing that Todd Blanche did yesterday
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: evisceraates or even modifies that settlement agreement. The settlement agreement
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: obligates the Attorney General to create the Anti Weaponization Fund.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Todd Blanche, of course did so through an order in May.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Yesterday he rescinded that, but there's nothing that would preclude
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: him from doing it all over again. These orders of
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: the Attorney General, they are at best department policy, but
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: at worst this is really nothing more than like me
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  Speaker 3: scribbling something on a napkin, handing it to you, and
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  Speaker 3: you saying that it has the force of a binding
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: written order, which is House Enators Tillis and Corny and
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Character yesterday. That may be a political tool for them
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  Speaker 3: to sort of force Todd Blanche into a corner where
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  Speaker 3: he can't revive it out a later point in time.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: But as you and I both know, with Cornin and
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Tillis leaving the Senate after the expiration of this here,
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  Speaker 3: their ability to enforce that binding written order, which is
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: not a binding document or an order, is very limited.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And that's Jmart just to go to you for a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: minute on this. That's what's so mystifying about these two
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: guys anyway, who are leaving town effectively run out of
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: office in John Cornin's case, by President Trump. He basically said,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: just give me something I can go on so I
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: can vote for Todd Blanch. He doesn't need to protect
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: himself politically. This chapter of his political career is over anyway,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and yet he's appeared satisfied by this memo, which is
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Lisa and others have pointed out, really does nothing to
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: stop President Trump from bringing it back. Why did these
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: two senators go along for the ride on this?
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: I think there's an impulse to be team players, and
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: Willie Current runs so deep in the Senate and especially
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: with sort of party regulars like Tillis and corn and
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  Speaker 4: they don't want to be iconic lass They I don't
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: want to do Trump any favors necessarily, But I think
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: that they believe that they've gotten something now that they
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: can hold up to block this from happening at least
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: for the next year, and that this is good enough
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: for them to walk back into their Senate luncheons with
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: their party and say they're not trying to be obstruction
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: as they're trying to be constructive but at the same
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: time protect the rule of law and precedent. You and
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: I know that Trump doesn't give to you know, what's
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  Speaker 4: about whatever is on that piece of paper, Willie, But
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  Speaker 4: it's cover for two senators who are trying to be
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  Speaker 4: team players even on the way out.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, John, we know when we heard it
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  Speaker 1: from the President's remarks yesterday, how he feels about this
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  Speaker 1: so called anti weaponization fund. He feels people were wrong
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: even though they were convicted by juris at their peers
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  Speaker 1: in many cases. I don't think there's a lot of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: doubt that President Trump, with his personal attorneys sitting as
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Attorney General, will work to.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: Revive this the quickly now. He's made it clear that
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: he will, and in recent days it seemed like he
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: was prioritizing the fund and these IRS protections even over
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: Blanche's confirmation. He had threatened he was willing to walk
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: away from Blanche eaven in the acting role, so he'd
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: gotten him in there anyway, you know, in order to
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: protect these things. And even when yesterday, as Blanche sort
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: of signs these documents, you know, Trump is still in
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  Speaker 5: the Oval saying, hey, we want to we might. I
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  Speaker 5: still think it's a good idea. Many people are saying it, so, Lisa,
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  Speaker 5: there's also, of course the IRS part of this, which
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  Speaker 5: I think outraged many. Antillis and Cornyn were not the
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: only Republicans who expressed the misgivings about that. But the
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: way this has been written, you have noted it can
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  Speaker 5: be changed, right, that there's some flexibility to this document,
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: to the IRS protections going forward. And it's hard to
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  Speaker 5: imagine that Trump would want to let this go as
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: he stares at his post political life, you know, in
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: twenty twenty nine beyond, when theoretically there's a Democrat in
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: the White House, a Democrat Department of Justice, a Democrat
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  Speaker 5: Internal Revenue Service, and he's going to want as much
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  Speaker 5: protection as he can for him, his sons, his business. Yeah.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Let's contrast this with the killing of the Anti Weaponization Fund,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: which can be revived. That may have holes in it,
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  Speaker 3: right and left. But this is even worse, Jonathan, because
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  Speaker 3: the way in which the tax community was granted in
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  Speaker 3: the first place is through a one page order of
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: the Attorney General, and it has some really stark language
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: in there that releases the plaintiffs to the Trump IRS lawsuit,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: that's Donald Trump, his two adult sons, Don Junior and Eric,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: and the Trump Organization from certain tax liability. But it
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: also releases people who are related or affiliated individuals I'm
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: reading from the order right now, including with that limitation
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: family or others filing jointly. Now, let's flash forward to yesterday.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: We're Todd Blanche through an unsigned thing that looks like
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: a press release, is saying. My interpretation of this is
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: that it only applies to the main parties that is
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: belaw by the plain text of what he signed on
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: May nineteenth. So anybody who walked away thinking that this
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  Speaker 3: immunity was narrowed yesterday and anything remotely resembling an efficacious
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  Speaker 3: way is deluding themselves, diluting their constituents, and lying to
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  Speaker 3: the American people
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: And posting memos on X does not constitute binding orders,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: as you've pointed out, could be easily unwound.