"I keep on saying this over and over again, but I'm happy to say it one more time. I have testified under oath that it's dead. I have testified in front of the House where I wasn't under oath, where I said it was dead. I have answered questions after my hearing, where I said that it was dead."
The $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" originated in the May 18, 2026 settlement of Trump's lawsuit against the IRS — the same settlement recorded in entry #23, which permanently barred the IRS from examining returns filed before May 19, 2026 by Trump, his family and his businesses. Under that agreement the Attorney General agreed to create the fund; Blanche, then acting attorney general, issued the order establishing it, drawing on the permanent Judgment Fund. After bipartisan backlash, including from Republican senators whose votes he needed, he rescinded his own order on August 2, and was narrowly confirmed after agreeing to drop the fund in exchange for support from Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. He was sworn in on August 10. At an August 12 press conference at the Justice Department, called to announce indictments in a sham-marriage scheme, a reporter asked whether he might revive it. He answered with the passage above, and added: "I'm not sure how I can further ... say that the anti-weaponization fund doesn't exist, or we use the word 'dead.'" He noted that "there were never commissioners" appointed to oversee payouts and that no money reached claimants, and said he and the president would support congressional legislation to compensate people they regard as victims of a weaponized department. Trump, asked after the swearing-in, said the fund's future was "up to" Blanche. Tax specialists reviewing the documents note that the August 2 rescission withdraws the DOJ order only: the underlying settlement obligating the Attorney General to create the fund was not amended and was not signed by the Trump plaintiffs, so it does not prevent them from suing to enforce it — a point Blanche conceded at his own confirmation hearing — nor does it prevent a future revival. Separately, claims by January 6 defendants and other Trump allies continue to be filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which draws on the same permanent Judgment Fund and requires no dedicated fund at all.
Ran the word. "Blanche says fund is dead" was the headline, his irritation was the color, and the number of times he has said it was the substance. The framing accepted the premise that a rescinded order settles the matter. It does not, and the reason sits on the record in two places: the settlement that created the obligation is still in force and unsigned by the plaintiffs, and Blanche acknowledged at his confirmation hearing that they could sue to enforce it. Neither appeared in most coverage. Nor did the simpler point — the payout mechanism was always the Judgment Fund, a permanent appropriation that needs no commissioners, no dedicated fund and no announcement, and allies' claims are already moving through it under the Federal Tort Claims Act. "Never set up" and "nothing has happened with it" are accurate statements about a vehicle. They were reported as statements about a destination.
Filed as STRUCTURAL INFERENCE because no one on the record says the fund is alive; the conclusion is what the documents leave standing. Entry #23 recorded the front half of this settlement, the permanent audit bar, and noted that the sequence was almost never walked as a single timeline. This is the back half, and it went the same way. An obligation created in a private settlement of the president's own lawsuit survives withdrawal of the order that implemented it, because the settlement was never reopened and the counterparties are the plaintiffs themselves. The Attorney General can therefore say "dead" accurately, repeatedly, and under oath while the instrument remains enforceable by the people it benefits, and while a permanent appropriation requiring none of the rescinded apparatus keeps paying claims. What was extinguished was an announcement. The press covered the extinguishing of the announcement.