Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday that those who assaulted police officers when they stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021 deserved to have been prosecuted.
He also assured senators that President Trump’s anti-weaponization payout fund is dead, has not made any payments and won’t do so.
He said he was making that commitment under oath.
“I’m doing it right now,” Mr. Blanche said.
He was testifying in his confirmation hearing to be the full attorney general, where the events of Jan. 6 and the continuing fallout loomed large.
Mr. Blanche repeatedly said the $1.776 billion weaponization fund, created as part of a settlement between Mr. Trump and his own administration after an IRS contractor leaked his secret tax information, is now defunct.
He brushed aside the demands of senators to revoke the settlement as part of the lawsuit, instead suggesting Congress pass legislation to ban the fund under federal law.
He even promised to assist in crafting the language.
“We do not object to that path,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
More than 1,500 people were charged in connection with the mob intrusion at the Capitol, and more than a thousand were convicted and sentenced before Mr. Trump issued a blanket pardon, shutting down the cases and freeing those still behind bars.
Several hundred of the defendants were charged with assaulting police, and hundreds more with obstructing or interfering with officers.
Mr. Blanche said the decision to pardon them was Mr. Trump’s, and he declined to criticize the president for exercising his power under the Constitution.
When pressed by Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, Mr. Blanche said the police who were assaulted were victims of crime and the blame lay with some of the unruly mob.
“Yes, and should have been prosecuted, and was,” Mr. Blanche said.
