The news text contains information about a Senate subcommittee hearing on the Department of Justice's (DOJ) 2027 budget. Additionally, it includes a press briefing from the White House by Vice President JD Vance and a hearing on the US military posture in the Middle East, led by the head of US Central Command.
CNN: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is testifying before a Senate subcommittee on the department’s 2027 budget. He will likely face questions about the DOJ’s creation of aVice President JD Vance will hold a press briefing from the White House this afternoon.
He could address everything from talks on endingThe head of US Central Command will testify on Capitol Hill on the US military posture in the Middle East. It comes after President Donald Trump said yesterday he willbut that he’s instructed the military to be prepared to launch a “full, large scale assault” if a deal isn’t reached.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche equated the anti-weaponization fund announced by Justice Department, styled as an agreement to resolve President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against IRS, to an Obama-era fund set up in a case brought by Native American farmers alleging discrimination by the Department of Agriculture that offered funding to organizations supporting those tribal communities. For one, the tribal fund arose from a longrunning lawsuit and court-supervised settlement.
Trump dropped his case against the IRS abruptly, while the judge was raising doubts that it was a legitimate legal dispute that belonging in the court. Secondly, the court in the tribal case played a role in monitoring the initial settlement and approving the fund that was later set up in it. The new fund from Trump allies contemplates no such judicial oversight.
Finally, the tribal program was aimed at funding organizations that served the farmers and ranchers that brought the original lawsuit against the USDA. The new fund will not be limited to people who claim they were weaponized in Trump-related probes, as Blanche himself emphasized Tuesday,In his first congressional testimony since becoming acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche touted its efforts to fight against the Trump administration’s priorities of violent crime and drug trafficking.
In his opening statement, Blanche stuck to the basics: a decrease in the national murder rates, indicting hundreds of Tren de Aragua gang members and thousands of fentanyl related arrests and launching a new office inside the Justice Department to prosecute fraud cases.
“With your combined continued support, the Department of Justice will remain strong, effective, and fully equipped to protect the American people,” Blanche said. Senator Chris Van Hollen questions Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel during a Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing for FY2027 budget requests on May 12, 2026. During his heated opening remarks Tuesday, Maryland Sen.
Chris Van Hollen tore into acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at the budget hearing for the Justice Department, accusing him of weaponizing the department to singularly help President Donald Trump. The Democratic senator said the new fund of nearly $1.8 billion to compensate Trump’s allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the previous administration is “pure theft of public funds.
” “Yesterday, you created a $1.8 billion slush fund to dole out taxpayer dollars to the president’s supporters, including those who attacked this capital on January 6,” Van Hollen said. Van Hollen also criticized Blanche for firing prosecutors over their work on cases against Trump as well as his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and unwillingness to properly investigate deaths of US citizens at the hands of DHS officers.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is prepared to talk about what he sees as his successes so far during his time at the Justice Department, including reducing violent crime, cartels, fentanyl, the new Justice Department fraud division, and the reduction in the immigration caseload, according to a source familiar with his plan. Blanche expects to get many tough questions about the announcement yesterday that DOJ establishing a nearly $1.8 billion dollar fund to compensate Trump’s allies and anyone who feels they were wrongly targeted by federal investigations.
CNN’s Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid will be watching closely for how Republicans press him on the fund given its massive size and apparent lack of oversight. President Donald Trump expressed frustration with the parliamentarian and her decision on the White House ballroom funding in a call to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, according to a source.that funds Trump’s ballroom in the GOP’s latest budget bill was deemed out of order by the Senate parliamentarian, marking a major blow to the president’s priority.
The White House has said the money would be put toward security for the East Wing project. The ballroom funding totals about $220 million, according to a memo sent from the White House to members of Congress, but comes as part of a $1 billion security funding request. Adm. Brad Cooper, the chief of US Central Command who oversees US forces in the Middle East, is set to testify to the House Armed Services Committee today.
He will be joined by other high-ranking Pentagon officials for a hearing on “U.S. Military Posture and National Security Challenges in the Greater Middle East and Africa. ” At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Cooper told lawmakers that Iran still has the capability to strike oil infrastructure and US partners in the Middle East.
In response to a question about whether Iran can strike oil infrastructure “across the Persian Gulf,” Cooper said: “They have a very moderate, if not small capability to continue strikes. ”Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche prepares to testify during a Senate panel on Capitol Hill on May 19 in Washington, DC.
Todd Blanche is set to testify before a Senate panel for the first time as acting attorney general and will face questions from lawmakers on the Justice Department’s full-throttle effort to both enforce the president’s agenda and investigate his personal grievances. His testimony comes at a pivotal time for both the Justice Department and Blanche himself.
Blanche, who represented Trump in two federal court cases, took over the Justice Department after the president fired Pam Bondi as attorney general in April. He has since been on a mission to prove to the White House that he should be nominated to fill the attorney general spot permanently.
His effort has resulted in a series of splashy announcements from the Justice Department, including indictments against And just one day before his testimony, the Justice Department announced the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate those who believe they were politically prosecuted with taxpayer money. The announcement did not provide specifics on who could apply for a settlement, but President Donald Trump has broadly stated that his allies were improperly targeted in everything from the Russia collusion investigation to those charged in connection to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The fund’s establishment was immediately criticized by Democrats and watchdog organizations, which allege it allows Trump to enrich his allies without consequence. It will likely be heavily scrutinized by Democratic lawmakers on the Senate committee. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s testimony on the Hill comes one day after the Justice Department announced the creation of aThe unprecedented move will allow President Donald Trump to pay his supporters from a government agency he controls with taxpayer money.
There appears to be few constraints on who can submit a claim to the fund. The president has broadly stated that his allies were politically targeted by the justice system, from the years-old Russian collusion investigation to the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection to the January 6, 2021,his $10 billion lawsuit alleging that the Internal Revenue Service failed to protect Trump and the Trump Organization from an unauthorized leak of their tax returns.
Politics DOJ Budget 2027 President JD Vance Press Briefing US Military Posture In The Middle East
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