Trump may have just exposed himself to 'grounds for impeachment'

On Friday, President Donald Trump posted a Truth Social message that some commentators say may have just handed Democrats the “grounds for impeachment” they’ve been looking for should they take back a Congressional majority in the midterms.

As Michael Tomasky of the New Republic explains, “It all has to do with the slush fund … the result of a settlement in a mind-bending legal proceeding in which Trump sued himself: That is, the president of the United States sued the Internal Revenue Service, seeking $10 billion.” In May, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — who happened to be Trump’s former personal lawyer — settled the suit by creating a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for the benefit of Trump loyalists, including J6 insurrectionists, while granting Trump, his family members and his companies immunity from prosecution for any tax-related crimes.

But outcry from both the public and Congress forced the administration to backpedal, and Blanche assured lawmakers that the fund would be canceled. He said he would put that in writing but failed to do so, and as a result, Republican Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) are refusing to vote for his confirmation as attorney general.

At this point, Trump said that he would withdraw Blanche’s nomination for confirmation until Cornyn and Tillis — both of whom are lame duck Senators — leave office in January. As Tomasky explains, “What Trump is saying here is obvious. The slush fund and probably especially the immunity are far more important to him than Blanche is.”

“This matter has now jumped to the top of my list of grounds for impeachment,” Tomasky declared. Trump installed his personal lawyer to preside over a lawsuit in which the president is on both sides, resulting in a nearly $2 billion slush fund and immunity from tax crimes, then he admitted openly that the fund and immunity are more important to him than confirming his attorney general. The holdout Republican Senators have been very clear: if Blanche would commit to ending the fund and immunity in writing, he would be swiftly confirmed. But Trump won’t allow that.

Other commentators have noted the blatant corruption. According to former US attorney Barb McQuade, “Trump would rather pull Blanche’s nomination for AG than allow him to commit in writing that Trump’s IRS deal is off. The immunity Blanche granted to Trump from IRS audits is a windfall that some experts estimate is worth $100 million in taxpayer funds for Trump.”

Based on Trump’s inadvertent admission, “it’s hard to say how many articles of impeachment the Democratic House might come up with,” writes Tomasky, noting that the “biggest challenge will be deciding which high crimes and misdemeanors not to pursue. There’ve been dozens, hundreds, and they just can’t plausibly bring an indictment of 100-plus counts. They’re going to have to keep it to some number that the public can digest and buy into. But the slush fund and immunity grant sure look like count number one to me.”