Humility prevents me from saying I called it, but I called it. To be fair, it wasn’t hard to do, even if many did not. The Trump v. IRS suit “settlement” was nothing more than a scheme to law-wash Trump using taxpayer monies as a giveaway to his devoted militia, who are likely to be useful come next November, and to himself and his posterity  It was obvious from the outset, and the fact that they even screwed it up with a day-late settlement agreement that was never provided to the court, and then a day-even-later immunity conference that couldn’t even be bothered to be fashioned as if a settlement.

The whole sham was under the auspices of then auditioning Attorney General, Todd Blanche. The immunity gambit was signed by one, and only one, person at the Department of Justice. That too was Todd Blanche.

That would be the same Blanche who told the Senators when he was before them for confirmation to the post of Deputy Attorney General that he would never be guided by politics, exact revenge against AUSAs and agents who worked the cases against Trump or use the vast power of the office to prosecute Trump’s enemies. He swore he would never do that. Never. Never isn’t a very long time in Trump’s DC, apparently.

That would be the same Blanche who failed to release all the Epstein files, who grossly over-redacted the files he did release, and who released information about the victims of Epstein’s, et al., crimes. What he was careful not to release was anything that might have caused agita to the president and his pals. Then again, Trump was Blanche’s client, and once a duty is owed to a client, it’s always owed to that client.

That same Todd Blanche is before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be questioned as to his qualifications to serve as Attorney General. It will likely be a difficult hearing, partially because there are just far too many questions to be asked, too many egregious wrongs and improprieties to be “explained.”

Then again, whether or not Blanche gives actual answers to questions, something that few in the Trump administration have proven inclined to do, the Senators already know the answers. Every sentient being already knows the answers. The hearing will be a performance, and Blanche, who lied shamelessly at his first confirmation hearing, will likely put on a decent show. Unlike most of Trump’s nominees, he’s hardly stupid. He just “loves” Trump and is willing to do anything to prove his love.

For his part, Trump has made his position clear.

Most of Trump’s accolades have nothing to do with the job of the Attorney General of the United States, relating to state crimes and trends that long preceded Blanche and Trump. Of course, Trump wouldn’t be expected to know this, and certainly the MAGA faithful will be studiously unaware of the nonsense. But Trump wanted to remind the Senators that he wants his man, Todd Blanche, and he wants him bad.

In other words, the Republicans on the committee better confirm Blanche or suffer Trump’s vengeance. Two Republican Senators, Tillis and Cornyn, are no longer in the direct line of fire, although they can still be attacked, perhaps even prosecuted for some manufactured wrong, should they fail to toe Trump’s line. They have not committed to a position, but have expressed doubts about Blanche. Whether they will stand up or go squishy remains to be seen.

The best that can be said of Blanche is that he couldn’t stand Ed Martin, and had him thrown off the “anti-weaponization” group because he was so bad that he couldn’t manage to make the cut as DC United States Attorney. Of course, Martin is still the pardon attorney, which explains a lot about Trump’s choices of people to pardon and the sums of money paid in exchange.

Will Trump get his way? Will Blanche be confirmed? It would be heart-warming to believe that Tillis and Cornyn will put on their big boy senator pants to vote no, but thus far there has been little to suggest that their current doubts will metastasize into an honorable vote. But Todd Blanche should never be Attorney General. Now would be the time to stop it from happening. I, for one, am not sanguine at the prospect.