Jamie Raskin is asking citizens to weigh in on Blanche

Amid media reporting on loopholes in Todd Blanche’s documents written to get senators to yes on his appointment as attorney general, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., is asking citizens to contact their Republican representatives.

Raskin, a lawyer who taught constitutional law for more than 25 years and now is the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, on Monday discussed the problems with the Blanche documents on MSNOW, starting at minute 8:45 in this video.

(Here are the two documents from Blanche. One says Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” is “rescinded” and “is not operative.” The other document narrows the tax immunity deal shielding Trump, his family and businesses from audits. The deal now applies only to Trump, two of his sons and the Trump organization, and it is limited to past tax returns.)

In the video, Raskin asks citizens contact their Republican representatives.

“If just six patriotic House Republicans join with all House Democrats who have already signed my discharge petition, we can pass the NO CARTE BLANCHE Act, which would permanently end taxpayer-funded slush funds for political cronies, block future Judgment Fund abuses, and eliminate the Trump family’s extraordinary and unconscionable immunity deal,” he says in a Judiciary Committee press release.

The loopholes

The two documents Blanche issued that narrow or dissolve aspects of the deal to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS “are a political solution to a political problem, rather than a legally binding document,” says The New York Times.

“This case was flagrantly illegal from the start and they’re clearly trying to find a political way out of it that gets the attorney general confirmed without giving up their legal rights to actually enforce this illegal settlement,” says Matthew Platkin, a Democratic former New Jersey attorney general. He now is in private practice, representing people suing over the fund.

Two Senate holdouts on Blanche’s nomination, GOP Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C., and John Cornyn, Texas, said in a statement on Monday that the documents assuaged their concerns, ending an intraparty stalemate that had stalled Blanche’s confirmation process.

But the original terms of the documents creating the fund said it “may be modified only with the written agreement of the parties” — a reference to Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., the Trump Organization and specific government agencies.

And Blanche’s order is a government document signed only by him. “So absent any new executed agreement that they enter into, all of this is meaningless as a matter of law,” Platkin says.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., says in a statement that the new documents don’t prevent the Trump administration “from bringing the slush fund back from the dead next week.” And he notes that it “still leaves vague who and what is covered” by the tax provisions.

Tillis acknowledged on Monday the potential limitations of the written assurances. “Now, could the president completely reverse this and create a new fund? He could, and then he can answer to the American people.”

Denmark extends military conscription to include women and increases standard service time, in response to Russia, Trump

Why the U.S. stepped in after decades to help Japan prop up its yen

In Japan, the value of the yen has made old houses cheap, and some Americans are buying Japanese folk houses to rebuild here

Supreme Court won’t halt $656 million judgment against PLO and Palestinian Authority

Army Reserve lawyer’s insights into the closed-door hearings deciding the fate of trans troops

Education Department asks universities to commit to changes seen by many educators as an improvement over proposal last fall

Ethics panel recommends that House censure North Carolina GOP Rep. Chuck Edwards over conduct with 2 aides