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Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has tried to tread an ever-narrowing path between his role as a top Justice Department official and the job that got him there in the first place — as President Trump’s doggedly loyal former lead defense lawyer.....

But the moves that most starkly illustrated Mr. Blanche’s evolving approach came this week. In announcing on Monday a $1.8 billion fund that would benefit those who claim they were targeted by the federal government, he effectively forged a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to Trump allies, among them supporters who ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Mr. Blanche said in a statement.

It was instantly labeled a “slush fund” by Democrats. The head of one prominent good-government group described the plan as “one of the single most corrupt acts in American history.”

Then came a stealthy stunner. The department inserted a supplement to the fund agreement that granted Mr. Trump, his family and their businesses immunity from ongoing inquiries into their taxes, an extraordinary move that could shield the president from significant financial liability — issued under Mr. Blanche’s signature.

By sticking to his single-page playbook, appealing to an audience of one, Mr. Blanche has now incurred the wrath of a larger crowd — Republican senators, who angrily confronted him during a meeting at the Capitol on Thursday that ended with leadership scrapping a major budget vote to protest the proposal......

The acting attorney general, appearing at a subcommittee hearing, calmly parried hostile questions about the $1.776 billion fund. But his brow furrowed when he was asked to confront a core question by Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland.

Was he acting in the public interest, or as Mr. Trump’s hired gun?

“The fact that I used to be President Trump’s lawyer, is just a fact, but I’m the acting attorney general!” said an agitated Mr. Blanche, the former head of the president’s criminal defense team. “So don’t say the president’s former personal lawyer will do something — the acting attorney general will do something.”

Mr. Van Hollen cut him off.

“You are acting today like the president’s personal attorney, and that’s the whole problem,” he said.