President Donald Trump may temporarily withdraw the nomination of Attorney General Todd Blanche to bypass GOP holdouts in the Senate. Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn are currently blocking the confirmation process, demanding written guarantees regarding a Justice Department settlement involving a $1.8 billion fund and tax immunity for the president.
The confirmation of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has hit a wall in the Senate Judiciary Committee. While the Republican-led committee was scheduled to vote on advancing his nomination, the process has stalled over the specifics of a settlement between Donald Trump and the IRS. Two Republican senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, are refusing to move forward without written assurances from the Justice Department.
The $1.8 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund
At the center of the dispute is a settlement designed to end a lawsuit filed by Trump over the disclosure of his tax records. A key component of that deal was the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization
fund. According to reporting from Townhall, this fund was intended to provide damages to Americans who were persecuted by the Biden-era Department of Justice.
The current status of that money is a point of contention. Blanche has asserted that the fund is dead, but Senators Tillis and Cornyn are demanding written proof of this fact. The stakes extend beyond the fund itself; the settlement also includes an immunity deal that shields Trump, his family, and his businesses from IRS audits of past tax returns. While Blanche maintains the immunity remains in effect, the senators want the exact scope of that deal clarified in writing before they provide their support.
Trump’s Gambit to Bypass Tillis and Cornyn
Rather than granting the specific written guarantees the senators seek, Trump has floated a different strategy: temporarily withdrawing Blanche’s nomination. Because Blanche is already serving as acting attorney general, he would remain in control of the Justice Department regardless of whether he is formally confirmed.
The logic behind this move is purely chronological. Both Tillis and Cornyn are leaving office at the end of the year. Trump has suggested he could simply renominate Blanche in January, once the two holdouts are gone. Trump has openly discussed the end of their political careers, noting his refusal to endorse either man and his decision to endorse Cornyn’s primary challenger.
Negotiations and Committee Deadlock
The Senate Judiciary Committee has already postponed its vote. A spokesperson for the committee stated that Chairman Chuck Grassley is working to ensure the nominee is set up for success rather than failure, but the vote will not happen until sufficient support is secured. The Justice Department has attempted to bridge the gap by transmitting new language to the dissenting senators.
“If this were just between me and Todd Blanche, we would’ve worked this out. But apparently he’s getting some pushback from higher-ups at the White House. I don’t know who, but this doesn’t need to be this hard.”
John Cornyn, Senator
This friction suggests a divide not just between the Senate and the DOJ, but within the White House itself. While Blanche has the support of the other 10 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, other members of the full GOP caucus share the concerns raised by Tillis and Cornyn regarding the IRS deal.
The Risk of the January Reset
Trump’s plan to wait until January relies on the assumption that the Senate’s political math will be more favorable after the midterms. However, there is no guarantee that the replacement senators will be more compliant than the current holdouts. For now, the administration is weighing whether the political cost of providing written guarantees on tax immunity is higher than the cost of leaving the attorney general position in an “acting” capacity for several more months.
The immediate focus remains on whether the new written documents sent by the DOJ to Senator Cornyn will be enough to break the deadlock or if Trump will follow through on his threat to pull the nomination entirely.
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