Todd Blanche Confirms Trump Slush Fund Is Dead After Republican Outcry

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed Tuesday that Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund for his allies was officially dead in the water.

During a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Ranking Member Grace Meng asked Blanche what his plans were for Trump’s so-called anti-weaponization fund. The Department of Justice agreed to suspend the project until June 12, after a major court loss.

“We’re not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche said. “You’re right that there’s a date in the case in the Eastern District of Virginia in June. But we are not moving forward with the fund, period.”

“Not moving forward, ever?” Meng pressed.

“Correct,” Blanche said.

Blanche’s confirmation comes after Republican lawmakers urged the White House to nix the fund, in order to move forward with budget reconciliation.

Meng also asked whether Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward would sign and release documents reversing the DOJ’s position on the fund, but Blanche claimed it wasn’t necessary.

“We’re not moving forward with the fund, I’m not sure what that means to sign documents reversing, there’s nothing to reverse,” Blanche said.

Still, Meng urged Blanche to put his claims in writing in order to reassure the American public.

“I mean, I think there will be a transcript of what I say here, so that will be in writing,” Blanche said, laughing.

“We will work with you, and hold you to it,” Meng said.

It’s worth noting that Blanche has not backed off the other aspect of Trump’s settlement with the IRS: blanket immunity against being audited, which will empower the president and his family to freely commit financial crimes.

Spencer Gear was ready to kill for Donald Trump—until it was time to face the music before a judge.

The 34-year-old Nevadan was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for threatening to murder federal judges that handled cases involving Trump and January 6ers. His messages, which were mostly delivered by way of phone calls between November 2023 and July 2024, were explicit: “This is a death threat,” he told one victim. “I’ll spill your blood” and “You can’t do shit to Donald Trump,” Gear told others.

But Gear suddenly changed his tune when he was seated across from the judge handling his own criminal case Monday, pleading for mercy as he tried to walk back his violent promises.

“I’m embarrassed that I ever talked to people in such a manner,” Gear reportedly said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The republic cannot survive if we continue this path of political discourse.”

Gear claimed his brain had been infected by a “mind virus” from the internet, and that the supposed disease had caused him to lash out at people he believed were going to destroy the country, reported the Reno Gazette Journal.

He was convicted by a jury following a six-day trial in February. He was found guilty on 20 counts, including nine counts of threatening a federal official and 11 counts of transmitting threats. His 60-month prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.

“Today’s sentencing should send a clear message that the FBI stands firm in its commitment to protecting our public officials and ensuring that individuals who seek to harm others will be held accountable,” Special Agent in Charge Christopher S. Delzotto for the FBI Las Vegas Field Office said in a press release. “Threats of violence are never merely words; they constitute serious federal crimes, and the FBI takes every threat with utmost seriousness. The act of spreading fear and intimidation has no place in our community.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had a troubling exchange with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy in which he refused to commit to following all court orders on immigration.

“‘ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.’ That’s not a Democratic-appointed judge, that is a Republican-appointed judge describing the scale of illegality,” Murphy said in a Senate Appropriations hearing on Tuesday afternoon. “You always struck me as somebody who cared about the rule of law, and so maybe the easiest question is this: When DHS gets a court order telling them that something they are doing is either illegal and unconstitutional … can you commit to us that if a court judges something ICE is doing, something DHS is doing as illegal, unconstitutional, [or] tells you to stop, that you will comply with the court order?”

Mullin refused to give a yes-or-no answer, dodging the question at least four times.

Mullin: Ranking Member Murphy, I will tell you that we will never break the Constitution, and we’re not going to break the law, but we’re going to enforce our nation’s laws. And we’re gonna enforce the laws that you guys passed and that we implement. We will never go outside that, and if we do, we’ll hold each other accountable for that.

Murphy: But that doesn’t sound like the same thing as committing that you will obey a court order. Obviously, the entire structure of the federal government gives the power to the courts to divine whether you are obeying the law or not . I think it’s an easy thing to say, ‘will you, will you not implement court orders?’

Mullin: If we didn’t think courts were politicized, then I would probably be able to answer that, but we see courts over and over again that use their bench for their political opinion, not just the rule of law.

Murphy So you’ll pick and choose which court orders you obey based upon whether—

Mullin: Don’t put words in my mouth.

Murphy: Then what are you saying then?

Mullin: What I’m saying is, we’ll enforce the law, and we’re never going to break the Constitution.”

Murphy: You just said that you will not follow every court order, because—

Mullin: Chris, senator, don’t start putting words in my mouth. That’s not what I said. I said I will never break the Constitution.

Murphy: Will you implement court orders when they tell you to stop?

Mullin: You’re making an assumption on court orders I haven’t seen.

Murphy: Will you or will you not?

Mullin: I’m going to enforce the law, and I’ll never break the Constitution.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin appeared before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday to defend his department’s $63 billion budget request, but instead got tripped up in his own lies.

Mullin appeared stumped by a basic question about supposedly updated training standards for DHS agents. Yet as Mullin delivered his insistent nonanswer, he also gave away the fact that he actually wasn’t as involved in training reforms as he claimed to be.

“While you and [White House border czar] Tom Homan say you’ve made some of those changes, the American people haven’t seen the proof of that. So I’m going to ask you today: What are your current training requirements for agents?” asked Washington Senator Patty Murray.

“Thank you for the question. I want to remind the senator that I was a part of negot—negotiating those reforms, and I think you’re aware of that, so I actually know what happened during those—” started Mullin, before Murray interjected.

“You were not in the room, but I do know you were aware of it,” Murray said.

“No, I was very involved in it, the back and forth—” Mullin argued.

“I was in the room, you were not in the room. I know you weren’t,” Murray stated.

Murray was referring to a bill that would restore training standards, protect sensitive locations such as schools and churches from raids, and require DHS agents to obtain judicial warrants, effectively bringing department requirements in line with those of other law enforcement agencies across the country. Murray is one of several Democrats who have aggressively pushed to block DHS funding until the agency alters its public-facing policies, particularly since federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.

“Senator, you know that we agreed to all this stuff that you said, but you walked away because you had primary elections,” Mullin claimed.

“Mr. Secretary, you can give your side, I’m telling you I was in the room—” Murray responded, before Mullin interrupted: “It’s interesting, I was involved in that too.”

Bedbugs have infested the government agency responsible for insect defense.

The pests were found in the building housing the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an agency of the Department of Agriculture, NOTUS reports. A USDA employee told the publication that the irony “was lost on no one.”

Employees of the agency, located in the George Washington Carver Center in Beltsville, Maryland, were told about the infestation in mid-May, five employees told NOTUS. The USDA sent the staffers home, telling them to telework for a few days while the building was fumigated. The agency’s acting administrator, Kelly Moore, and acting chief operating officer, Carson Hawley, told employees that the building would only be closed for a few days but that they would email staff later to confirm.

When employees came back to the office, though, the fumes were so bad that some became sick, and the department said they could go back to remote work, a rare departure from the Trump administration’s insistence on in-person work for federal employees.

On Friday, employees were told that bedbugs were seen again in the building, but now, employees told NOTUS, more telework has not been authorized. Instead, agency employees were told to take personal time off if they didn’t want to work in the office. Hawley told staff in an email that day that employees were responsible for the bedbugs coming back, as they engaged in “insufficient compliance regarding personal items,” and told them to put those items into garbage bags and take them out of the building.

“We appreciate your support and compliance so that APHIS can do our part to ensure that Building 3 is bedbug free,” Hawley said. USDA’s official line also blames employees.

“USDA took prompt and robust action several weeks ago,” an agency spokesperson told NOTUS. “Unfortunately, personal belongings left in the offices caused further issue. Animal Pest and Plant Health Inspection Service management is working with employees to ensure the spaces are emptied for proper mitigation.”

Agency employees don’t want to take their personal items home and spread bedbugs there. Some are considering filing a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but fear retaliation.

“They are scared,” an anonymous employee said about their colleagues. “If you bring them home, the answer is to trash all of your belongings and fumigate your house at your own expense.”

“They treated the building, and then they sent people home again because of offgassing,” another employee anonymously told NOTUS. “Then they came back. Now there’s more bedbugs.” Yet another employee told the publication that staff came back “to an office that was making them sick because the chemicals hadn’t aired out.”

It’s insane that an agency that is supposed to be dealing with bird flu and New World screwworm (recently found 25 miles from the southern U.S. border) is dealing poorly with an infestation of its own. The Trump administration continues to find new lows in ruining federal agencies.