Ranking Member DeLauro Opening Statement at Justice Department Oversight Hearing with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche
WASHINGTON — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks during a Justice Department oversight hearing with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche:
Thank you very much Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Meng.
Acting Attorney General Blanche, welcome.
There is much I would like to cover today. The president’s budget proposes steep cuts to important programs that combat hate crimes, protect civil rights, and prevent gun violence; along with other changes that I believe will weaken efforts to keep our communities safe.
In an ordinary time, during an ordinary administration, these are topics that I would focus on. But these are not ordinary times, and this is not an ordinary administration.
No, this administration has engaged in what are perhaps the most brazen acts of flagrant corruption I have ever seen. And you are at the center of many of them, Mr. Blanche.
I know you do not like it when people bring up the fact that before you joined the Justice Department you were President Trump’s personal attorney.
But when you are issuing memos granting the president, his children, and their companies immunity from audits or prosecution for tax offenses, your previous role becomes relevant information.
When you preside over a deal to take $1.8 billion of taxpayer money to create a slush fund to pay out violent criminals who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers, you cannot be surprised when people question your impartiality.
Federal courts have blocked the fund from paying out any claims for the time being, but I am not at all convinced that this administration has given up. You left yourself a lot of room with your carefully worded statement, Mr. Blanche.
There is effectively no oversight to this slush fund. You appoint every member of the commission, and the president can fire any of them at any time for any reason.
There is no definite standard for who is and is not eligible to receive a payout – “weaponization” and “lawfare” are not legally defined terms. Who does and does not qualify appears to be entirely at the discretion of the people you appoint.
There is no transparency built into the fund. There is no Congressional oversight. The public has no way of knowing who has filed a claim, for how much, or on what grounds.
Conversely, we do not know who has been denied a claim, or why it was denied. We do not even know the process by which claims will be filed, or payments disbursed.
All we know for certain is that President Trump’s personal lawyer turned Acting Attorney General set up a $1.8 billion fund with taxpayer money that can be used to pay off just about anyone for just about anything.
It can be used to pay out violent criminals who assaulted police officers and ransacked the Capitol on January 6. These are people who were arrested, tried, convicted, and then pardoned by the president. And now he wants to raid the Treasury to pay them. It is unconscionable.
This is the sort of scandal that would ruin any other administration at any other time. But because President Trump has rendered House Republican leadership so completely impotent there will likely be no accountability until the next Congress.
In addition to the slush fund, you issued a memo stating that the United States is, quote, “hereby forever barred and precluded from prosecuting or pursuing, any and all claims,” against the president, his family, or their businesses, related to ongoing tax investigations.
Retroactive immunity would be a curious benefit to bestow on someone who has done nothing wrong. If the president, his associates, and family members were innocent of whatever they were being investigated for, the investigation would surely bear that out.
But now we will never know. Congress and the American people are left to speculate what could have possibly prompted this unprecedented settlement that exempts the president from any accountability for his actions.
This is staggering. I had not planned on using my time during this hearing to raise these issues, but I would be deficient in my duty as a Member of Congress were I to ignore this extraordinary display of self-dealing, self-service, and self-enrichment by this administration. Beginning with the president, on down.
All year on this Committee we have seen dramatic cuts to programs that help American families who are struggling with the cost of living. We do not have money for food or for housing; to bring down the costs for utilities, or gasoline, or healthcare. The president said there will be no money for day care, for Medicaid, for Medicare. But by God we do have $1.8 billion for a corrupt payout scheme for the president and his political allies. It is shameful.
I look forward to hearing your answers to our questions today, Mr. Blanche.
Thank you and I yield back.
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