Cornyn and Tillis End Blanche Block After Deal on Trump Fund and IRS Audits/ TezzBuzz/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis said they will vote to advance Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination after he formally eliminated a proposed $1.8 billion fund for Trump allies. The Justice Department also limited Trump’s IRS audit protections to existing matters, excluding future tax filings. The agreement ends a weeks-long impasse and gives Blanche the votes needed for Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote.
Quick Look
- Cornyn and Tillis said they will vote to advance Blanche’s nomination.
- Blanche needed both senators’ support in the Judiciary Committee.
- The committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday.
- Blanche formally rescinded the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund.
- The fund could have compensated people prosecuted in connection with Jan. 6.
- Republican and Democratic senators objected to possible payments for violent rioters.
- No fund members were appointed.
- No money was transferred or paid.
- No process for submitting claims was established.
- Trump’s IRS audit protections will apply only retroactively.
- Future tax filings will remain subject to potential examination.
- The committee previously postponed a vote because of the Republican opposition.
- Trump repeatedly defended the proposed compensation program.
- Cornyn and Tillis will both leave the Senate next year.
- Blanche previously served as Trump’s personal defense attorney.
Deep Look
Republican holdouts agree to support Blanche
WASHINGTON — Two Republican senators who threatened to block acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination said Monday that they will now support advancing him to lead the Justice Department permanently.
Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced their decision after Blanche formally rescinded a proposed $1.8 billion fund intended to compensate people claiming politically motivated prosecution.
The agreement ends a weeks-long confrontation involving the senators, Blanche and President Donald Trump’s White House.
Cornyn and Tillis sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote on Blanche’s nomination Tuesday. Their support gives him the Republican votes needed to advance to the full Senate.
Senators praise Blanche for reaching agreement
Cornyn and Tillis had refused to endorse Blanche without written confirmation that the Anti-Weaponization Fund would not be created.
Blanche issued that confirmation in a formal order Sunday night.
“We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon,” Cornyn and Tillis said in a joint statement.
Both senators will leave Congress next year. Cornyn lost his reelection campaign after Trump endorsed his Republican primary opponent, while Tillis is retiring at the end of his term.
Their pending departures gave them greater freedom to challenge the administration over the controversial settlement.
Blanche formally eliminates $1.8 billion fund
Blanche’s order rescinded the Justice Department’s May 18 directive establishing the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
The proposed program was created as part of a settlement resolving Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
It was intended to compensate people who said they had been unfairly targeted by the Justice Department or other parts of the federal government.
Critics warned that people prosecuted for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol could have received taxpayer-funded payments.
Those concerns triggered opposition from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Blanche previously said fund would not proceed
During a Senate hearing in June, Blanche testified that the Justice Department would not move forward with the fund.
Cornyn, Tillis and other skeptical senators said those assurances were insufficient because the original order remained in place.
They were especially concerned because Trump repeatedly defended the proposal and suggested that it might be revived.
The lawmakers demanded a written document formally rescinding the fund before they would support Blanche’s nomination.
Sunday’s order provided that commitment.
DOJ says fund is dead “beyond any doubt”
In a statement issued with Blanche’s order, the Justice Department emphasized that it had repeatedly told Congress and federal courts that the fund would not become operational.
The department said that “although the Acting Attorney General has repeatedly advised Congress through testimony, including under oath, as well as in written responses, that the Fund is not moving forward, and the Department has repeatedly represented to district courts that the Fund is not moving forward, today’s Order officially rescinds the May 18, 2026 Order.”
The formal action removes the underlying directive that could have allowed officials to establish the compensation program.
No claims or payments were made
The Justice Department said no part of the fund became operational after the IRS settlement was announced.
“No Members were appointed; no funds were transferred; no process for receiving claims was established; no claims were paid,” the order says. “This order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund.”
The language was designed to eliminate concerns that planning or administrative activity might have continued despite Blanche’s previous testimony.
It also gives Cornyn and Tillis a public record they can cite when explaining their decision to support his nomination.
Agreement restricts Trump’s IRS audit immunity
Blanche’s order also limits a separate provision of the IRS settlement that gave Trump and members of his family broad protection from tax audits.
Cornyn and Tillis had expressed concern that the original language could protect Trump’s future tax returns or extend across numerous Trump Organization entities.
The revised agreement states that the audit protection “applies by its terms only retroactively.”
It will cover only claims or examinations that were open when the settlement was reached.
The provision does not prevent the IRS from reviewing tax returns filed by Trump in the future.
Committee postponed earlier confirmation vote
The Judiciary Committee originally planned to vote on Blanche’s nomination Thursday.
Committee leaders postponed the meeting after Cornyn and Tillis said the administration had not done enough to address their objections.
With all committee Democrats expected to oppose Blanche, Republican defections could have stopped the nomination from advancing.
The agreement announced Monday removes that immediate threat.
If the committee approves Blanche on Tuesday, his nomination will move to the full Senate, where Republicans hold the majority.
Senators blamed White House for delay
Throughout the negotiations, Cornyn and Tillis said Blanche and other Justice Department officials were willing to resolve their concerns.
They suggested that the White House was responsible for preventing an earlier agreement.
“I think as far as Blanche and the Department of Justice, we were pretty much on the same page,” Cornyn said Thursday. “But then when the president got wind of it, he wasn’t willing to go along with it.”
Trump publicly supported the fund even as Blanche assured lawmakers that it would not proceed.
The president’s statements reinforced the senators’ insistence on a formal and legally clear cancellation order.
Blanche was Trump’s defense attorney
Blanche represented Trump in his criminal cases before entering the Justice Department last year as deputy attorney general.
Trump elevated him to acting attorney general after firing Pam Bondi in April.
The president had become frustrated with Bondi over what he viewed as her failure to prosecute his political opponents successfully.
Blanche initially insisted that he was not seeking the permanent position.
As acting attorney general, however, he has aggressively implemented the administration’s priorities and accelerated investigations involving people Trump considers political adversaries.
Trump threatened to withdraw nomination
Trump repeatedly argued that the compensation program should proceed while Blanche negotiated with Cornyn and Tillis.
Following the delay of Thursday’s committee vote, Trump threatened to withdraw Blanche’s nomination.
He said he could resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year.
Blanche could continue performing many of the attorney general’s responsibilities as deputy attorney general if the top position remained vacant.
Still, failure to confirm Trump’s chosen nominee would have been a political setback for the White House and could have created legal questions about prolonged acting service.
Trump continues defending Jan. 6 defendants
Trump has continued defending people prosecuted for their involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
On Sunday evening, he said potential recipients of the fund had “their lives destroyed.”
“This would be a reimbursement for the pain that they suffered,” Trump said. “A lot of people like it.”
The president pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack after returning to office.
Some Republicans have strongly objected to describing rioters who assaulted police officers as victims deserving government compensation.
IRS settlement faces court challenge
The fund and audit protections were part of a settlement resolving Trump’s lawsuit over the leaking of his confidential tax information.
A federal judge sharply criticized the agreement and characterized it as an improper act of self-dealing.
The judge questioned how Trump could negotiate a settlement against an executive branch he controls and whether the audit shield violated federal restrictions on White House involvement in IRS investigations.
Trump’s lawyers informed the court Friday that they would appeal the ruling.
The judge also referred one of Trump’s attorneys for potential disciplinary action.
Judge questioned Blanche’s involvement
The federal judge criticized Blanche’s involvement in negotiating or approving the settlement because he had previously served as Trump’s personal attorney.
Blanche has said he disagrees “with the judge’s insinuations” about him.
Justice Department attorneys had already stated in court filings that the fund would not move forward.
They refused, however, to comply with the judge’s request that Blanche and other administration officials submit declarations under penalty of perjury promising not to take additional steps to create it.
The department described the court’s demand as “unnecessary.”
Deal clears immediate confirmation obstacle
The formal rescission provides the written assurance that Cornyn and Tillis demanded.
It also narrows the IRS agreement in a way intended to prevent Trump from receiving protection for future tax filings.
The order does not end the judicial dispute over whether the original settlement was lawful or improperly negotiated.
It does, however, appear to resolve the Senate conflict that threatened Blanche’s nomination.
The Judiciary Committee’s Tuesday vote will determine whether he advances to the full chamber, but the two Republican holdouts now say they are ready to support him.
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