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| The Blanche Debacle Continues |
| At the moment, it’s unclear whether Blanche’s nomination can get to the Senate floor next week. The two Senate Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who have objected — John Cornyn and Thom Tillis — have suggested that they may have been close to some sort of resolution with Blanche, but today Trump screwed that up by sending out a social media post suggesting that he still wants to make the payouts at issue in the fund — the fund that Blanche has repeatedly insisted is so obviously “dead” that he doesn’t need to put his name on anything saying so, even if the person asking is a member of Congress or a federal judge. | | The irony of all this is that Cornyn and Tillis weren’t asking Blanche for much — they still aren’t asking for much — and that remains the actual problem here. As Trump’s post made clear, his desire to pay taxpayer money to the Jan. 6 rioters — and the possibility of that actually happening — will not be “dead” unless and until Congress passes a law killing it. This has been clear all along, which is presumably why Blanche has for months refused to sign anything to that effect. | | In any event, Blanche’s commitments in writing would be meaningless for two reasons — first, he has said repeatedly, including under oath at his confirmation hearing, that he believes he is constitutionally obligated to follow Trump’s instructions; and second, if confirmed, he will not be the attorney general forever. Trump could fire him at any moment. | | It’s hard to believe that Cornyn and Tillis don’t know these things, but they are acting as if they are mounting some serious challenge to Blanche’s confirmation even though, by their own logic, his decision to sign off on the slush fund should already have been disqualifying. Similarly, it’s hard to understand how Blanche and the administration have been unable to navigate these very modest obstacles. |
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| The Docket |
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| • | Exclusive: Thousands of children, sponsors arrested by ICE after tips from US child migrant agency (Reuters): Since January 2025, the Office of Refugee Resettlement — which, among other things, is supposed to take care of unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border — “has shared more than 460,000 ‘leads’ with ICE about unaccompanied children, their sponsors — usually parents or other relatives — and additional household members, leaving them vulnerable to detention and deportation.” | | • | Overland couple shot dead in Guatemala after local ICE stop led to deportations (St. Louis Public Radio): A couple was forced to go back to Guatemala by Trump’s immigration crackdown. Shortly thereafter, they were found shot to death, hands bound, with their 14-month-old daughter left crying beside them. This is not the first time that the administration’s deportations have been de facto death sentences. | | • | Trump’s DOJ charged hundreds with assaulting officers. Many cases were dropped, but the damage was done (Reuters): “Reuters interviewed a half dozen people who, despite the abandoned charges, reported lost jobs, legal fees and in some cases a flurry of online threats that arrived after federal officials publicized their arrests.” | | • | Thousands of immigrant children may soon face a judge alone (WP): The Trump administration wants to take lawyers away from tens of thousands of children. | | • | Immigration agents used racial slurs referring to Latinos in text messages, video obtained by ACLU (LAT): Some of the agents are racists. |
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| Off the Record |
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| Some non-legal items that caught my eye | |
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