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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — Donald Trump’s former personal defense lawyer — sat in front of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday morning and did five things in one hearing. He defended a $1.776 billion fund that pays Jan 6 rioters out of the Treasury. He answered for Ghislaine Maxwell’s federal prison transfer, which followed his own private interview with her in Tallahassee. He was cornered, after months of refusal, into agreeing to meet the Epstein survivors. He quietly signed and posted a second document that gives Donald Trump and every Trump entity forever-immunity from IRS audits. And while none of it triggered the follow-up question it should have in the room, the Office of Government Ethics revealed last week that Trump personally traded stocks 3,700 times in the first quarter alone. One hearing. One man. Five fronts.
5️⃣ HOW THE PRESS IS BURYING THE AUDIT PARDON
Read the major wires Tuesday afternoon. Most of them led with the slush fund — the $1.776 billion fund that pays Jan 6 rioters. The audit pardon, the second document Blanche signed Tuesday that gives Trump’s family and businesses forever-immunity from IRS audits, ran most often as a paragraph nine inside a Trump-IRS settlement story. The New York Times broke it as an “expanded agreement.” Reuters called it “an updated provision.” Most cable coverage Tuesday afternoon did not mention it at all. The Intercept called it “theft far worse than Watergate.” Fox didn’t run it.
GROUND NEWS BLINDSPOT
The biggest story of the night is being filed as a footnote on the bigger story of the morning. Ground News flags the stories one side of the press is ignoring and shows you the framing gap on the same screen — bias rating, factuality score, source ownership, all built in. Tuesday is exactly why we use it.
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4️⃣ TRUMP TRADED 3,700 TIMES IN Q1 — CRAMER GOES SILENT
The U.S. Office of Government Ethics disclosed last week that Donald Trump personally executed 3,700 stock transactions in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Reporter Judd Legum, on Substack, has been tracking the receipts — Apple shares bought the day Trump publicly praised Apple, Thermo Fisher shares bought the day Trump toured a Thermo Fisher plant. The cleanest insider-trading paper trail an American president has ever produced. CNBC’s Jim Cramer was handed the news on air Monday and could not speak for ten seconds. Wall Street’s loudest voice did not have a word.
3️⃣ BLANCHE, CORNERED ON THE EPSTEIN SURVIVORS
In a separate exchange in the same hearing, Blanche was pressed on whether the Justice Department would meet with the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. The senator asked him directly: “Will you reach out to them?” Blanche tried legalism. “Any lawyer can reach out to the Department of Justice.” The senator pressed again — would Blanche personally call the victims, since the lawyers had already tried. Blanche, eventually, after a minute of dodge: “Of course, yes, absolutely. That would be great. I would like to meet the survivors.”
2️⃣ “THE PRESIDENT’S CONSIGLIERE”
A senator pressed Blanche on his trip to Tallahassee last year, where Blanche personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell — an interview under “queen for a day” immunity where she could say whatever she wanted, without consequence. “Why did he send you down to talk to her?” the senator asked. Blanche: “He didn’t send me. I went.” The senator: “Yes, I do, frankly. Because you know...” “You’re a very gifted lawyer. But from my perspective, you have very little faith to the Constitution and the people of America, and you’re the president’s consigliere.” Blanche: “Your perspective is completely wrong, Senator, respectfully.” The senator: “Well, I think the facts will prove me right.”
1️⃣ TRUMP’S GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD
The New York Times published a second document Blanche had signed Tuesday and quietly posted to the Justice Department’s website. Section C: “The United States releases, waives, acquits, and forever discharges each of the plaintiffs from...” pursuing any claim, examination, damages — and the affiliated-parties clause extends to “trusts, parents, sister or related companies, affiliates and subsidiaries.” Every Trump entity. Forever. No more audits. Brian Morrissey — Treasury’s general counsel, confirmed by the Senate seven months ago — walked out of the building Monday night. He wasn’t resigning over the slush fund. He was resigning over the perpetual cover. Mitchell, live on Narativ: “Todd Blanche doesn’t even have the authority to say that about the United States. He is not the United States.” The lawsuit was dropped before any judge could review a settlement. What Blanche signed is a contract. Contracts break. State attorneys general are already being briefed. The lawsuits are being drafted.
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