The deal Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears to have brokered with some Senate GOP holdouts in his confirmation battle may contain a few surprises.
On Monday, reports indicated that Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) were willing to end their holdout and vote to confirm Blanche for the attorney general role after Blanche signed a document attesting that the Justice Department's so-called "anti-weaponization" fund is dead. The $1.776 billion fund sought to pay people who claimed they were wrongfully convicted by the government, and President Donald Trump has said the fund has a lot of support from "big" Trump supporters.
However, the deal that Blanche brokered may not be legally binding, argued Elliot Williams, a CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, on Monday's broadcast of "The Arena."
"It is not clear that any ofthis is actually binding," Williams said. "Andthe biggest thing this exposesis the problem with having thepresident literally be on bothsides of the v in the lawsuithere."
The anti-weaponization fund was created as part of a settlement between the DOJ and IRS, two agencies that Trump oversees, in a case involving Trump's leaked tax returns. Williams described the lawsuit as Trump suing Trump, which creates a lot of headaches for judges.
"That creates a huge legalproblem that led one of thejudges that looked at this tosay, 'Wait a second, there isn'teven a controversy here. Ican't even adjudicate this.'This is a big problem," Williams said.
Kate Beddingfield, a former White House communications director for the Biden administration, added that Blanche's deal also created political vulnerabilities for Trump.
"[This] is actually a pretty significantpolitical vulnerability for Trump," Beddingfield said. "This notion that he isfocused on himself, that he isfocused on enriching himself andhis family. This isactually one of the bigliabilities that Trump has outin the country. And one of thereasons that hisfavorability is so low."
"Ialso think just the idea that Donald Trump is going to adhereto any kind of independence ofthe Department of Justice, whichhe's made very clear he's not interested in, or adhere to any written piece ofpaper, period, of any kind to constrain him if he decides hewants to move forward with this."