‘It Makes Everything Way Harder’
“We will pick up where we left off,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters after a lengthy private Republican conference lunch on Thursday, which reportedly ended with Thune telling Senate Republicans that they were being sent home to start their Memorial Day recess early.
The House quickly followed suit, dropping its plans for a Friday vote on the reconciliation package that includes funding for immigration enforcement. As of this morning, the Senate was scheduled to send the legislation to the House after a vote in the upper chamber today.
But President Trump’s vanity and corruption scuttled those plans, according to multiple reports from Capitol Hill this afternoon.
Some Senate Republicans were already wary about including about $1 billion in additional Secret Service and White House funding tied to Trump’s ballroom project in the upcoming reconciliation package that is expected to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Border Patrol into 2029. A handful had indicated publicly that they wouldn’t vote in favor of the immigration package if it also included the ballroom funding, and more, according to reports, supposedly privately had heartburn about it.
The Senate Parliamentarian ruled that the ballroom proposal could not be included in the package and, as of Wednesday, Senate Republican leadership had decided to remove the provision from the bill in order to pass the immigration funding. (Trump went ballistic, of course, and used his Truth Social platform to call on Republicans to punish the parliamentarian.)
But then Trump’s comedically corrupt settlement agreement between his own IRS, which he sued, and his Justice Department came to light. The settlement purported to establish a $1.7 billion slush fund — dubbed the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” by the DOJ — to be used to compensate people who feel they’ve been wronged by the judicial system, aka Trump’s allies and supporters who were charged as part of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the broader effort to overturn the election, as well as people who assisted with Trump’s various other misdeeds. Some Senate Republicans, during a hearing with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, vocalized concerns about who might be eligible for compensation. Specifically, they had concerns about whether those who attacked police officers on Jan. 6 would qualify. Blanche would not say for sure. Politico reported on Wednesday that there might even be enough GOP support for a planned Democratic amendment targeting the slush fund to be attached to the reconciliation package.
During a private briefing between GOP senators, Blanche and other DOJ officials on Thursday, Blanche reportedly faced a grilling from Senate Republicans about the slush fund of taxpayer dollars, which will have to be approved by Congress. Per NBC News:
The Justice Department has said it plans to make $1.776 billion in taxpayer money available for the fund. Given Democratic opposition, the only method of passing that through Congress would be to add it to the immigration “reconciliation” package, which can pass with only Republican votes.
Republicans were apparently specifically trying to nail Blanche down on potential guardrails for the fund’s disbursement. Blanche reportedly committed behind closed doors that settlement funds would not be given to those who assaulted police officers on Jan. 6 — something he was not willing to do publicly. Senate Republicans also received a one-page fact sheet from the White House that outlined details like where the money would come from, who would be in charge of pay outs and who might be eligible. (The memo reportedly did not mention that people who assaulted law enforcement would be ineligible.) Per NBC News:
“This is about seeking accountability for all Americans who were victims of lawfare and weaponization: millions of Americans whose online speech was censored at the behest of the government, parents silenced at schoolboards, Senators whose records were secretly subpoenaed, churchgoers targeted by the FBI, and so on,” the fact sheet said.
“There is no partisan restriction: Democrats can submit claims, too,” according to DOJ.
As he exited the meeting Thursday, Thune was candid with reporters about the lack of progress that was made during the meeting and the roadblock the slush fund has created for the passage of the immigration reconciliation package.
“They need to help with this issue, because we have a lot of members who are concerned obviously about the timing but also about the substance,” Thune said, referencing the slush fund and the help he needs from the administration to organize his conference around it. Per Politico:
Asked about the internal furor over the settlement fund, Thune told reporters that “it makes everything way harder than it should be” and that it “would have been nice if they had consulted” senators.
— Nicole LaFond
Blanche Clearly Struggling With the Assaulting Police Question
His attempts to clean this up have not gone well.
There’s More 👀👀👀
First of Many Ex-Trump Officials Running for Office Wins Dem Primary
An ex-federal prosecutor who said he resigned from the Justice Department after Trump began weaponizing it against his perceived political enemies, Zach Dembo, won the Democratic primary in the race to represent Kentucky’s 6th House District and replace Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), who’s running for Senate.
Dembo is part of a slate of ex-DOJ attorneys and other former Trump administration officials who launched Democratic bids for office this year after leaving or being kicked out of the administration. Fired-FBI official David Sundberg is running for Congress in Maryland. An ex-Capitol police officer who fought off rioters during the January 6 insurrection is also running for a Maryland congressional seat. And former DOJ deputy to prosecutor Jack Smith is running for Congress in Virginia.
Dembo worked as a U.S. Navy JAG before heading to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. He worked in policy for Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear before returning to the DOJ as a prosecutor in Lexington.
“When Donald Trump started using your Justice Department to go after his political enemies, I resigned,” Dembo said in a campaign ad released earlier this month.
Dembo’s chance at beating his GOP opponent in November looks like a long shot right now, according to the Cook Political Report, which rates Kentucky’s 6th District as “solidly Republican.” According to state data, registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats in the district by just over 1,000 voters.
— Layla A. Jones
Tariff Watch: Court Denies Admin’s Request for Stay After Blocking New Levies
The Trump administration has to stop collecting its newest set of tariffs, refund the importers who sued the government, and carry out a court’s orders blocking the tariffs even as it appeals the decision.
After the administration scrambled to replace Trump’s widespread tariffs, which were blocked by the Supreme Court, with some new levies under a different statute, a couple of small businesses and two dozen states sued the government afresh. In early May, the Court of International Trade struck down those new import taxes. The court ordered the administration to repay the harmed plaintiffs, which were the small businesses and the state of Oregon. As expected, the administration immediately appealed and asked for a stay of judgement in the meantime. Wednesday evening, the court denied the administration’s request for a stay while it appeals the ruling, dealing another blow to Trump’s unceasing attempt at reordering global trade.
— Layla A. Jones
In Case You Missed It
The latest edition of The Franchise from Khaya Himmelman: South Carolina Republicans Advance Map That Aims to Eliminate Jim Clyburn’s Seat
Morning Memo: New Frontiers in Venality, Graft, and Abuse of Power
ICYMI: Louisiana Governor Heckled, Rejected During Tour of Greenland
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
What Will Drop Next in the Corrupt Trump-IRS Deal?
What We Are Reading
A Department of Justice for an Age of Conspiracy Theories
It is all he has now. The only thing Republicans believe about him is the amount of pain he can dole out to them. Threatening people or nations is it. Do it my way or else. Fancy president-ing there.
Yes, it’s umpty dimensional chess with Donnie standing behind the board with a running chainsaw.