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The “settlement” for Paul Vaughn, who was #convicted by a Tennessee jury in 2024 of conspiring to prevent access to an #abortion clinic, shows how the goal of the $1.8 billion fund announced in May can continue, despite a public retreat by #ToddBlanche [& a court order]. An already existing avenue for disbursing #TaxpayersMoney could allow him to assuage skeptical #Republicans while fulfilling #Trump’s desire to pay people he believes were wronged by the #DOJ.
As senators delayed a crucial vote on #ToddBlanche’s nomination to be attorney general over the so-called weaponization fund, a million-dollar payment the #DOJ made to an #AntiAbortion activist underscored how it could still funnel #TaxpayersMoney to people who claim to be victims of government persecution [& whose politics #Trump agrees with].
#SlushFund #law #LegalEthics #MafiaState #authoritarianism #autocracy #fascism #AbuseOfPower #AbuseOfOffice
The “settlement” for Paul Vaughn, who was #convicted by a Tennessee jury in 2024 of conspiring to prevent access to an #abortion clinic, shows how the goal of the $1.8 billion fund announced in May can continue, despite a public retreat by #ToddBlanche [& a court order]. An already existing avenue for disbursing #TaxpayersMoney could allow him to assuage skeptical #Republicans while fulfilling #Trump’s desire to pay people he believes were wronged by the #DOJ.
Vaughn will receive a seven-figure settlement from the US government, his lawyers said, making him among those aligned with the #Trump admin who have received a payout by an alternative means.
…The continuing ability of the #DOJ to make such payouts with or without a formal fund structure is one of the sticking points between the Trump admin & Republican senators as they weigh the nomination of #ToddBlanche….
#SlushFund #TaxpayersMoney #law #LegalEthics #MafiaState #autocracy #AbuseOfPower
…2 weeks ago, Judge Kathleen Williams of Federal District Court in Southern District of Florida wrote that she was “extremely troubled” by Blanche’s answers to the #Senate about the #SlushFund.
In testimony in May, #ToddBlanche told senators there was “no mechanism” for a legal review of the agreement creating the fund. He argued documents had never been submitted to a court for scrutiny because the case, a lawsuit #Trump filed against the #IRS over the leak of his tax returns, was dismissed.
“This answer is, at best, misleading &, at worst, disingenuous. The court was available to review any pleading by any party at any time during this lawsuit,” the judge wrote.
Another federal judge, Leonie M. Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, has left alive a lawsuit seeking to dismantle the #SlushFund.
#TaxpayersMoney #Trump #ToddBlanche #fraud #law #LegalEthics #DOJ #MafiaState #AbuseOfPower #AbuseOfOffice
Judge Brinkema said the case remained open because #ToddBlanche & the #DOJ refused to file an affidavit under penalty of perjury “that they will not take any action to create or operate” the payout fund & that it “will not proceed in any manner, under any name.”
Blanche has pushed back against such demands. Even as he promised lawmakers in June that the #SlushFund was dead, he said that “I’m not committing to putting anything in writing.”
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