Todd Blanche Flails Over Story of J6er Who Tried to Bribe Abuse Victim

Source: The New Republic · Bias: Left

Summary

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche can’t handle the heat created by his own office.The Justice Department chief immediately lashed out while getting grilled on Capitol Hill Tuesday, accusing Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of lying about a very real case in which a pardoned January 6er—Andrew Paul Johnson—was found guilty of child molestation shortly after Donald Trump freed him.“That person actually tried to buy the silence of these children by saying that he would pay them some of the funds he was hoping to get from your slush fund,” Van Hollen said, referring to the Justice Department’s forthcoming $1.8 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund,’ a taxpayer-funded initiative to effectively give reparations to allies of the president, including riot defendants.“Can you commit to making the rules so that that person is not eligible for a payout under this fund?” asked Van Hollen.But Blanche could not provide a simple, affirmative answer.“Well you’re obviously lying in your question, because there’s no way this person committed to that,” Blanche said. “The slush fund, as you call it, which is not—but I can’t commit—”“Mr. Attorney General, don’t ever do that again,” Van Hollen interjected, pointing his finger. “I am reporting what he said. He said on the expectation that he hoped to get some of the funds from a payout.”“But you said from the slush fund, senator, and that didn’t exist when he said that,” Blanche refuted.“This is the fund that the president and all of you have been telegraphing, all along, would use to help the president’s friends,” Van Hollen clarified.Later in the same exchange, Van Hollen accused Blanche of being ignorant and unaware of critical happenings under the purview of his office. Blanche, in turn, continued to deflect.U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin and DOJ official Jonathan Gross are just two of the figures within the Trump administration who have advocated for financially compensating those that stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.Last year, Martin told right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson that it would be “only fair” to make the rioters “whole.”Gross said on a podcast in December 2024 that “there has to be compensation.”“People’s lives have been destroyed,” Gross said at the time. “And the way they can do that is they can just let everybody file a lawsuit and settle the lawsuits.”Democrats attempted to stave off such payments in January, when California Senator Alex Padilla introduced the “No Rewards for January 6 Rioters Act,” but the bill has made no progress since.

Related Coverage

Daily Analysis

Read the full Parallax Pulse for May 18, 2026 — an AI-powered analysis of how Left and Right media covered the biggest stories this day.

More Headlines From May 18, 2026

arallaxNews.io
Todd Blanche Flails Over Story of J6er Who Tried to Bribe Abuse Victim
The New Republic

Todd Blanche Flails Over Story of J6er Who Tried to Bribe Abuse Victim

Left

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche can’t handle the heat created by his own office.The Justice Department chief immediately lashed out while getting grilled on Capitol Hill Tuesday, accusing Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of lying about a very real case in which a pardoned January 6er—Andrew Paul Johnson—was found guilty of child molestation shortly after Donald Trump freed him.“That person actually tried to buy the silence of these children by saying that he would pay them some of the funds he was hoping to get from your slush fund,” Van Hollen said, referring to the Justice Department’s forthcoming $1.8 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund,’ a taxpayer-funded initiative to effectively give reparations to allies of the president, including riot defendants.“Can you commit to making the rules so that that person is not eligible for a payout under this fund?” asked Van Hollen.But Blanche could not provide a simple, affirmative answer.“Well you’re obviously lying in your question, because there’s no way this person committed to that,” Blanche said. “The slush fund, as you call it, which is not—but I can’t commit—”“Mr. Attorney General, don’t ever do that again,” Van Hollen interjected, pointing his finger. “I am reporting what he said. He said on the expectation that he hoped to get some of the funds from a payout.”“But you said from the slush fund, senator, and that didn’t exist when he said that,” Blanche refuted.“This is the fund that the president and all of you have been telegraphing, all along, would use to help the president’s friends,” Van Hollen clarified.Later in the same exchange, Van Hollen accused Blanche of being ignorant and unaware of critical happenings under the purview of his office. Blanche, in turn, continued to deflect.U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin and DOJ official Jonathan Gross are just two of the figures within the Trump administration who have advocated for financially compensating those that stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.Last year, Martin told right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson that it would be “only fair” to make the rioters “whole.”Gross said on a podcast in December 2024 that “there has to be compensation.”“People’s lives have been destroyed,” Gross said at the time. “And the way they can do that is they can just let everybody file a lawsuit and settle the lawsuits.”Democrats attempted to stave off such payments in January, when California Senator Alex Padilla introduced the “No Rewards for January 6 Rioters Act,” but the bill has made no progress since.

Read Full Story at Source