Blanche: “We’re not moving forward with the fund”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday said the Trump administration is abandoning plans to create a controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that has faced bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.

“We’re not moving forward with the fund, period,” he told a House appropriations subcommittee. “There were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them. The reasons for the fund … remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund.”

GOP senators revolted last month over the creation of the fund, which was intended to compensate people who say they were victims of “lawfare and weaponization” under past Democratic administrations, forcing leaders to cancel planned votes on a reconciliation package to fund ICE and Border Patrol.

The administration on Monday said it would “abide by” a temporary court order halting payments from the fund, but Republican senators were seeking a more definitive statement that the program was being abandoned.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said he had received assurances from the administration that the fund would not move forward and expressed hope that Mr. Blanche’s testimony would provide additional certainty to lawmakers.

“I think his statements are going to be very definitive, very clear, and create the certainty that I hope all of our members and House members need as well in order for us to proceed on the reconciliation bill,” Sen. Thune told reporters ahead of the testimony. “But I’m not guaranteeing that happens yet. We’re still continuing to have conservations with our members.”

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