Trump's epic court smackdown leaves Chris Hayes taken aback: 'Stunk to high heaven'

With President Donald Trump's IRS lawsuit that motivated the "anti-weaponization" slush fund officially declared invalid by a federal judge, and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche facing possible sanctions as he heads to the Senate for confirmation, MS NOW's Chris Hayes took in the situation — and registered astonishment at how corrupt it all was.

Blanche, noted Hayes, appears to be "on a glide path to confirmation" despite it all — but concerned senators should still seize the moment to put him on the spot.

"They could also askabout his role in the creationof a slush fund forinsurrectionists and an IRS audit shield for the Trumpfamily, and that might be oneof the most interesting linesof questioning tomorrow,because on the eve of hishearings, a federal judge hasaccused blanch of professional,unethical and sanctionablebehavior for his role in that," said Hayes, noting that the judge, Kathleen Williams, is forwarding her ruling to the New York Bar to possibly discipline Blanche.

Williams, noted Hayes, concluded her opinion by writing, "this wasan attempt to use the court toprovide some legitimacy to anagreement to confer immunity topeople and entities affiliatedwith the president ... this lawsuit was not brought to vindicate rights. It was brought to manipulate the judicial process to pursue benefits unavailable in litigation."

Hayes then turned to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who dropped in for an interview on "All In."

This kind of order, noted Hayes, is "so rare," and "the case itself stunk to high heaven from the beginning, it seemed obviously pretextual ... but here's a guy who's going to come before the committee to be the most important lawyer in the country. And a federal judge has just said that the bar should investigate him and possibly disbar him."

Whitehouse agreed, comparing the situation to the GOP's confirmation of Trump's former attorney, Emil Bove, to be an appellate judge even while he was being investigated for contempt of court. "Rather than wait until that was resolved, they jammed him through before it could be resolved, so they didn't have to know the result of it," he said. "I'm worried that that will be the case here, but this is quite a big deal."

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