00:00The president telling the federal government to settle a case and let him pay billions
00:05to the people that he chooses?
00:07What you just described wouldn't be appropriate, and that's absolutely not what happened, and
00:11that's not what's happening now.
00:12So you just set up a series of facts, most of which were not true, to say is it ...
00:16No,
00:16it's not.
00:17Senator Reid?
00:18Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:21Mr. Blanche, how many taxpayers' returns were leaked by the IRS contractor in the 2020
00:26breach?
00:27Mr. Blanche, how many taxpayers' returns were leaked by the IRS contractor in the
00:342020 breach?
00:35Mr. Blanche, I don't know the exact amount, but a lot.
00:37Mr. Blanche, 405,427.
00:41One of them was Donald Trump, correct?
00:45One of them was Donald Trump, correct?
00:47Mr. Blanche, it was Donald Trump and his family were others, correct.
00:50Mr. Blanche, and Donald Trump was president at the time?
00:53Mr. Blanche, correct.
00:54Mr. Blanche, so it was his IRS department that allowed this breach of privacy, correct?
01:00Mr. Blanche, it was a criminal who worked in the IRS, yes.
01:04Mr. Blanche, well, he was hired under Trump's ... This is one of the Trump ...
01:08Mr. Blanche, there was a criminal breach that led to this, yes.
01:11Mr. Blanche, very good.
01:13Mr. Blanche, how many of these 400,000 people have received monetary reimbursement for the
01:18breach?
01:19Mr. Blanche, I don't think any have, including the president.
01:21Mr. Blanche, no, they haven't.
01:22Mr. Blanche, but you've authorized the president to agree the president should have reimbursement,
01:28correct?
01:29Mr. Blanche, we settled the case.
01:30Mr. Blanche, no, there's no reimbursement to President Trump.
01:32Mr. Blanche, well, that's interesting.
01:36Mr. Blanche, he filed a suit, Senator, but ...
01:36Mr. Blanche, so President Trump ...
01:37Mr. Blanche, you're going to assure us that President Trump and his family will get no
01:40proceeds from this?
01:42Mr. Blanche, correct.
01:43He will not.
01:44Mr. Blanche, he will not get ... his family will not get ...
01:46Mr. Blanche, correct.
01:47Mr. Blanche, and who will direct the disposition of these ... who gets the money?
01:52Mr. Blanche, from the ...
01:53Mr. Blanche, from the ...
01:54Mr. Blanche, from the victims' fund?
01:55Mr. Blanche, well, there'll be a commission of five individuals that will be set up, and they will take
01:59in requests and claims, and decide whether to do anything from issue an apology.
02:03Mr. Blanche, who will name the commissioners?
02:05Mr. Blanche, I will.
02:05Mr. Blanche, the Attorney General, whoever the Attorney General is.
02:07Mr. Blanche, the Attorney General.
02:09Mr. Blanche, okay.
02:10Mr. Blanche, sorry, just to correct, and one of them will be done in consultation with
02:13leadership of this body.
02:14Mr. Blanche, consultation, well, that's good, but when he first announced this suit on January
02:2230th, he said, I think what we'll do is something for charity, where I'll give the money
02:27to charity.
02:28Mr. Blanche, I'm talking about the American Cancer Society.
02:31I would say established and respected charities.
02:34Will you fulfill the President's wish that it goes to respected charities?
02:39Mr. Blanche, I'm aware that he put that in or said that, but that's not ultimately
02:43what the settlement calls for.
02:44Mr. Blanche, well, the settlement was negotiated between his lawyers and the Department of Justice,
02:50correct?
02:50Mr. Blanche, correct.
02:51Mr. Blanche, so his lawyers did not urge that they adopt the President's vision of giving
02:56it to a respectable charity?
02:58Mr. Blanche, I am confident his lawyers urged the President's desires.
03:01Obviously, there's not a charity.
03:04Mr. Blanche, the order that you signed yesterday states that the government pay this settlement
03:13if the Secretary of Treasury has certified the payment.
03:17Is that correct?
03:18Mr. Blanche, correct.
03:19Mr. Blanche, is it a coincidence that the General Counsel of the Department of Treasury resigned
03:23yesterday?
03:25Mr. Blanche, I don't know if it's a coincidence.
03:27Mr. Blanche, have you looked or checked?
03:28Mr. Blanche, have I checked?
03:29Mr. Blanche, I have not.
03:31Mr. Blanche, as to why he resigned?
03:32Mr. Blanche, it just seems to be very coincidental that a high-ranking member of the Department of
03:37Treasury, Senate confirmed, would resign the day that the Treasury Department was required,
03:43essentially, to certify these payments.
03:47Mr. Blanche, well, I believe the IRS signed the settlement agreement as well.
03:51But yes, I can't speak to why he resigned, Senator.
03:55Mr. Blanche, well, this all seems to be an obvious abuse of power by the Department of Justice, by the
04:09President.
04:09Mr. Blanche, he negotiated, essentially, with himself.
04:12Mr. Blanche, you're his appointee.
04:14The IRS are his appointees.
04:16He's the plaintiff.
04:18And the American people, I don't think, are surprised that suddenly all this money is going to his friends or
04:25people in his orbit.
04:28Will you ensure that none of this money goes to anyone convicted on the January 6th attack on the Congress?
04:35Well, the commissioners will determine who is eligible to receive the money.
04:39And who are the commissioners?
04:41They're not named yet.
04:42Who will name them?
04:44I will.
04:44Or the Attorney General will.
04:45It's not me.
04:46So, with the suggestion of the President of the United States.
04:50Excuse me?
04:50With the suggestion of the President of the United States, your boss.
04:54I do not make suggestions.
04:55I will.
04:55No, no.
04:56He won't make suggestions to you.
04:58I have no idea if he will or not.
05:01I really don't.
05:02I have no idea if he will or not.
05:06I would be shocked if he didn't tell you exactly who to put on.
05:10And I'd be more shocked if you did not put them on.
05:13This is a travesty of the law in the United States and the Constitution.
05:21Acting Attorney General right now, families are paying four, five, even six or seven dollars for gas.
05:27Inflation is at its highest level in years because of the President's policies.
05:32But instead of helping Americans get by, President Trump is literally using their tax dollars to set up a slush
05:42fund to enrich his own friends.
05:44On Monday, your department settled the President's lawsuit by setting up a fund with 1.8 billion dollars.
05:52And you and the President will pick the handful of people who decide how that money gets doled out.
05:59So let's be clear.
06:01The President has set up a slush fund, however you want to say that it got set up.
06:06And he literally will get to choose, through his handpicked appointees, who gets paid that fund.
06:12That is absurd.
06:14The President did not set up this fund.
06:16It's not a slush fund.
06:18It's been done many times.
06:20We have lots of funds established.
06:21Well, I heard your response earlier to Senator Van Hollen.
06:24This is not comparable to the case that you cited.
06:27A judge was not involved.
06:29This is the President versus himself setting up a fund.
06:33The judge wasn't involved in the distribution in the Keep Segal case at all.
06:36It just wasn't.
06:37There was a single commissioner that was set up, not five.
06:42The judge signed off on that case.
06:45Yes, it was at a much later point in litigation.
06:47That's my point.
06:48That is all of our point.
06:49And I just have to tell you, this is corruption that has never been more blatant or more right-spent.
06:55What is happening is, you write the check, Trump and his cronies cash it,
07:00American taxpayers, who are already being whacked with high prices, are going to foot the bill.
07:05That's what we are seeing today, and that is what many of us are really, really angry about.
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