Blanche Pressing
Trump's attorney general nominee testifying under oath, but still falsely, that he's not still Trump's personal attorney in general
July 15: Senate Democrats to press Blanche on something, anything, hopefully … Trump threatens to sink the Law of the Sea … ICE changes its car-stop policies to save immigrants’ lives, by which I mean Susan Collins’s Senate campaign … Democrats block obscene military spending bill …
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The Senate Judiciary Committee today is questioning Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to determine whether he can stop acting and become permanent, and whether he can stop acting as Pres. Donald Trump’s personal attorney. It’s not clear whether Blanche has enough Republican votes to be confirmed, but if he didn’t we’d probably know that by now.
As for whether Blanche is fit to serve as the nation’s top law-enforcement official, it’s not as if voters have a clear-cut answer from the New York City Bar Association. There are any number of ways to interpret the bar association’s Monday letter to the Judiciary Committee, which said confusingly and ambiguously that,
“Blanche has taken actions that we believe make him unfit to lead an ethical and independent department of justice that is essential to our nation’s democracy. We urge the Committee to reject the nomination of Mr. Blanche. Mr. Blanche’s record—particularly the actions he has undertaken as Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General—conclusively demonstrates his lack of commitment to the integrity, professionalism and independence that the Senate should require and the American people should expect of the highest law enforcement official in the land.”
Just say what you mean!
The hearing today and tomorrow is about two things. (1) Can Democrats ask questions good enough to make confirming Blanche politically painful for Republicans?
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said Tuesday, for instance, that she still has questions about the Department of Justice (DOJ) IRS settlement, which is weird, because she’s a senator and could have asked them by now.
Just last month, Collins said said she and Blanche had a “very good meeting,” during which he swore there would be no slush fund for Jan. 6 temp workers. Let history note that Collins’s very good meetings seldom turn out very good for America.
And (2) Senate Democrats can elicit new information from Blanche relevant to his and his department’s many, many wrongdoings.
Automatic foul against anyone who asks Blanche what he will do. Hath Kristi Noem taught us nothing?
There’s no point asking Blanche what he will do, because what he will do when asked what he will do is lie about what he will do.
In his confirmation hearing to serve as deputy attorney general, Blanche said that what he will do is follow the counsel of the DOJ’s ethics staff on when to recuse himself from the many Trump cases. Two weeks after his confirmation, the ethics staff told him to recuse himself from the many, many Trump cases. He many, many, many didn’t.
Blanche has been in office for months and helped lead the department beforehand. The hearings are a prime and rare opportunity to get hard information from Blanche about what he’s been up to and how far down he’s sunk and how badly he’s degraded a department that once prided itself on independence even from presidents much less algae-covered than our current one.
A partial review:
Blanche Bits
Blamed by previous Attorney General Pam Bondi for covering up The Epstein Files™. (That’s right, Trump nominated the man in charge of the Epstein coverup, according to his previous attorney general.)
Revealed names of Epstein victims.
Concealed names of Epstein prosecutors and non-prosecutors.
Redacted information about how Trump acted.
Participated in White House strategy meetings in The Epstein Situation Room, spitballing how to make it seem like Trump wanted the files released, without actually releasing them.
Didn’t follow up with Ghislaine Maxwell when she told him “If you met Epstein, there is no way that this cast of characters — of which it's extraordinary, and some are in your cabinet.” Say who what now?
Didn’t ask Maxwell questions that could have shed light on what Trump knew about Epstein.
Unhesitatingly prosecuted and/or investigated Trump’s enemies.
Former FBI Director James Comey
Former FBI Director John Brennan
Former Trump White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson
Bragged about cleaning out anyone in the Justice Department “that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump.”
Is currently pushing states to turn over voter information, losing the 14th and 15th out of 15 lawsuit rulings just Tuesday.
Failed to uphold the constitutional rights of protesters.
Engineered a bogus “settlement” of Trump’s IRS lawsuit — from which Blanche didn’t recuse himself — to immunize Trump against further tax prosecution and create a slush fund to pay off his minions.
Attempted with that IRS settlement to violate federal law barring Trump or his aides in the executive branche from telling the IRS what to do.
Lied to the court to sneak the IRS settlement through.
Falsely claimed that the president has a “duty” to tell DOJ to investigate entities that he “has had issues with.” Who knew? Mea culpa, Pres. Nixon!
Punished DOJ lawyers for things like admitting in court, where they legally have to admit things, that, for instance, they shouldn’t have deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Oversaw a purge/diaspora of DOJ staffers.
Fielded prosecutor toadies and noobs whose performance in less than two years has robbed the DOJ of the judicial presumption of good faith in courts around the country.
Defended the prosecution of Don Lemon because covering a protest in a church violates the religious rights of worshipers which it doesn’t because religious rights are the rights not to be persecuted, not the rights to special treatment based on Jesus seducing you into loving Him so hard.
Fired a prosecutor for refusing to recommend restoring gun rights for Mel Gibson, noted as the actor whom America would least like having access to guns.
Shut down crypto enforcement while holding at least $159,000 in crypto … and after promising he’d sell first before doing shit like shutting down crypto enforcement.
And it’s not just the New York City Bar Association. Epstein survivors are asking that Blanche not be confirmed:
More than 50 organizations focused on the rule of law and enforcement integrity oppose Blanche’s confirmation. That’s a big tranche.
More than 100 former judges requested a New York State Bar Association investigation of Blanche. That’s an avalanche.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said Tuesday that the DOJ is “hindering” his Epstein investigation by refusing to share unredacted files relevant to his investigation of Epstein’s former property there. That’s a ranche.
Also on Tuesday, TFN told you about Judge Kathleen Williams going house on Blanche in her courthouse over Blanche’s role in the IRS bullshit.
In May, a federal court in Tennessee, which apparently still allows federal courts, concluded that Blanche tried to punish Abrego Garcia for not being guilty by accusing him of other crimes. “Blanche started the investigation to implicate Abrego,” the court wrote. “Absent Blanche’s tainted investigation, [the DOJ] would not have sought an indictment against Abrego.”
Senators can also ask Blanche about defending Trump when he was supposed to: As his private, personal attorney, helping Trump get convicted on 34 felony counts of trying to hide his payoffs to Stormy Daniels to avoid having people know she slept with him.
Blanche also represented Trump in his toilet-documents case and his attempted Grand Theft Nation case, both of which Blanche won not in court but by delaying the cases enough for Trump to win the election.
Democrats lack the votes to block Blanche’s confirmation. But what they could do is say that they won’t fund a Justice Department led by him. And they do have the votes to block DOJ funding.
They won’t do that, but there is one upside to having Blanche in charge and, ideally, getting him to say things in public this week. Blanche’s record is a gift to all those defense attorneys who are and will be arguing that federal prosecutions are illegitimate.
Judges already have plenty of reason to believe that. And they’re about to get a lot more.
TAKING ACTION The full Senate will soon vote on Blanche’s nomination. You can call your senator (see the link at the top of today’s TFN) or send a statement politely requesting that they vote all the fuck no.
Trump Expands Law-Breaking Franchise from America to The Seas
For decades, if not centuries (my way of saying I don’t know), the Law of the Sea has held that nations don’t have sovereignty over water passages past their border.
On Monday, Pres. Donald Trump announced a 20% fee on cargo going through the Strait of Hormuz, in return for being protected from evildoers who might extort shippers for 20% of their cargo.
Later that day, apparently, someone explained to Trump that raising the cost of shipping causes inflation.
So, on Tuesday, he dropped his 20% fee and announced that the countries of Hormuz shipping vessels would make investments — unspecified but definitely enormously infinite — in America.
This would still be the first time in history modern history (my way of saying I don’t know) that the free passage rights of the Law of the Sea would be officially violated as a matter of policy.
And as the New York Times reports, the president’s unprecedented precedent could open the way for other nations to start fucking with waterways they actually do border.
As with so much Trump law-breaking, it not only threatens to shatter norms that protect global stability, it’s also pre-failing. Shipping companies told the Times that Trump’s offer of protection doesn’t remove the underlying threat to ships in the strait. His, or Iran’s.
“[M]ilitary protection is not sufficient for us,” one told the Times. Meaning the only option is for Trump to do the impossible: Achieve something he wants through means other than force.
ICE Changes Tactics from Best Tactics Like No One’s Ever Seen
After killing two people in the span of a week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is changing tactics without admitting that its previous tactics killed two people in the span of a week.
The Wall Street Journal reports that ICE will no longer use traffic stops for its Kavanaugh Stops (accosting people for immigrant-adjacent behavior like riding on buses). The policy shift will deprive ICE agents of one of their most effective tools: The ability to blame their victims for “weaponizing” their cars, a claim debunked by video literally every fucking time.
Now, when someone attempts to flee in a car, ICE agents are supposed to let them go. Which is the kind of thing Democrats would never advocate in public for fear of Republican howling, but is also the kind of thing that is howlingly obvious when we take off our fear-tinted glasses.
Would you advocate a car chase, or opening fire, for someone fleeing outstanding parking tickets? Okay, then.
Speaking of video, ICE officers will no longer be allowed to arrest people unless at least one of them has a body camera. This could complicate ICE field tactics by forcing the body-camera team members to turn around during ICE murders and loudly say things like, “Uh, hey, guys, I thought I saw something over this way opposite from where you’re lawfully killing that dude who’s attacking your batons with his head.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) on Tuesday took credit for the changes, in hopes that voters will reward her for doing something after ICE killed a guy in Maine.
That Obviously Fake McConnell Photo
One advantage of resisting instant certainty is the reduced risk of proclaiming shit with jack shit for evidence.
I speak of those folks out there — and they are legion — who were sure that the proof-of-life photo of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) with his proof-of-wife Elaine Chao, the former Labor secretary, was a fake. Amazingly enough, some went beyond mere suspicion and offered reasons for their certainty, that they called proof.
Snopes took a look at all the proof out there and concluded that that proof is actually the bullshit the photo is accused of being. There’s no proof the photo was faked.
Be suspicious all you want, but true Newsfuckers resist certainty in the absence of actual proof.
Two Quickies
Israel’s military is facing stiff resistance from one of the nation’s most lethal enemies: Pres. Donald Trump. On Thursday, Axios reports, Trump ordered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to withdraw his army from Syria and Lebanon, even though this will make Israel less safe and is therefore antisemitic. Netanyahu reportedly is not likely to comply with Trump’s orders, making Netanyahu antisemitic.
Senate Democrats on Monday defeated (for now) a $1.15 trillion military spending bill that some of them will eventually help pass in some amount. Democrats have cited the illegal Iran War and the illegal war on U.S. cities. Not to mention The Boat-iac Killings™. Politico obviously described the vote as a “failure” — because passing funding for crimes is the norm — and described Senate “dysfunction,” because for some reason Politico has forgotten that the point of the Senate isn’t to agree on things but to disagree on things.
TCB
SNEAK PREVIEW There’s more reporting coming out about what’s expected in Pres. Donald Trump’s Thursday night speech, ostensibly dealing with putative election fraud. Namely, his fraud about election fraud. I’m hoping to write up a pre-bunking beforehand.
NEWSFUCKING IN THE WILD Not sure when it’ll drop, but on Friday I’m taping an appearance with Cheri Jacobus for her podcast. I’ll share it when it goes up after being dropped.
SUPPORTING TFN The future of journalism is readers supporting the journalists they turn to for the news or, in TFN’s case, the fucking thereof. TFN continues to grow, but the number of paid subscribers is actually shrinking.
Some of that is American Express not processing automatic renewals because they don’t like “The Fucking News”’s middle name. Some of it’s natural attrition.
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Go get ‘em, kids! From Libya to Maine, they’re backing down…
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks. He is a member of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation advisory board.
Blanche symbolizes the very worst qualities of lawyers and thoroughly disgraces the profession. The thought that Donald Trump is trying to foist his personal criminal defense lawyer on the American people as the country's chief law enforcement attorney is revolting. The Senate needs to protect us from him.
Your Seuss-like "tranche" … "avalanche" … "ranche" had me "entranched."
In the end Mr. Blanche, have you no shame? Obviously not.