The legal antics of President Donald Trump and his Attorney General Todd Blanche have been likened to a scene from Dumb and Dumber.
Trump and Blanche’s deeply unpopular slush fund for January 6 rioters was back in court on Friday, despite assurances from the attorney general that it was dead.
MS NOW legal reporter Fallon Gallagher tried to explain the situation to anchor Stephanie Ruhle using a scene from the iconic 90s movie where Lauren Holly’s character tells Jim Carrey’s Lloyd Christmas there is about a “one out of a million” chance that they will end up together.
“So, Steph, you know, that famous movie quote in this scene in Dumb and Dumber, you have Jim Carrey and he’s talking to the love interest and he’s like, ‘So you’re telling me there’s a chance? Are you saying there’s a chance?’” Gallagher said as a laughing Ruhle chimed in.
“Do I remember it? It’s one of my favorite movies,” Ruhle interrupts Gallagher to add.
“That’s all I can think about this week with this case. And that is because you have the attorney general who says that he killed the fund but left a bunch of loopholes,” Gallagher explains.
“You have the Department of Justice asking this judge today to dismiss the case, which would remove the only legal roadblock.”
Blanche and Trump made a deal in May to settle a $10 billion lawsuit the president had filed against the Internal Revenue Service over his leaked tax returns.
The controversial deal said that the government would establish a $1.776 billion ‘anti-weaponization fund’ that Trump then indicated could be used to make secret payments to Capitol rioters and other Trump allies claiming they were wrongly prosecuted by the Biden administration.
The fund would operate without any legal or congressional oversight. The deal also shielded Trump and his family from any future tax prosecutions.
The settlement caused an uproar in Washington, with Republicans and Democrats condemning it. During his confirmation hearing in August, Blanche was forced to agree to kill the fund and restrict the settlement’s tax shield to gain enough Republican votes to be confirmed.
A court injunction is also blocking the fund, first put in place in June. The DOJ appeared in court Friday, asking the judge to lift the injunction.
When U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, issued the injunction she asked for a sworn statement signed by both Blanche and the Treasury that the fund would never be established.
The DOJ has refused to submit such a statement, and Blanche’s order that rescinded the fund made no promises that the administration would not try to revive it in the future.
“[Judge Brinkema] said, if you file a declaration under penalty of perjury, that you’re not going to move forward with this fund in any way, shape or form, I’ll dismiss this case. They didn’t do that. And yet we’re back here in court today, and they’re asking her to dismiss the case,” Gallagher said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said the department was “confident that the court lacks jurisdiction over this lawsuit against the [Anti-Weaponization Fund], which never started and isn’t moving forward.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
