Two Republican senators are holding up acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's confirmation over the Justice Department's refusal to formally kill a $1.8 billion settlement fund, and one of them says he won't vote yes until he sees it on paper.
The Senate Judiciary Committee pulled a scheduled Thursday morning vote on Blanche's nomination late Wednesday after Sen. John Cornyn of Texas made clear he would not support the nominee without a written agreement from the Justice Department. Cornyn wants two things in writing: confirmation that the DOJ's controversial "anti-weaponization fund" is permanently dead, and a clear answer on who exactly is shielded by the tax audit immunity baked into a settlement of President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department.
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina shares Cornyn's concerns. With every Democrat on the committee expected to vote no, a single Republican defection is enough to sink the nomination in committee, making either Cornyn or Tillis a one-man roadblock.
The dispute centers on a settlement that resolved Trump's lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department. That deal included a fund worth nearly $1.8 billion, described as money to compensate people who claimed they were politically persecuted, along with audit protection for the president and his family on prior tax returns. The settlement itself requires that any changes be agreed upon in writing by all parties.
When the anti-weaponization fund was unveiled in May, it drew fierce resistance from lawmakers in both parties. The DOJ backed away from it. At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Blanche told the committee the fund was finished. Cornyn pressed him directly, asking whether a written agreement existed to modify the settlement.
Blanche's answer was unequivocal, CBS News reported:
"No, the settlement fund is just not moving forward. There's no modification. It never started. No money went from the Treasury to any other account."
That sworn testimony was not enough for Cornyn. He wants the DOJ to put Blanche's words into a binding document, one that also spells out which individuals are protected from future audits and which federal agencies are bound by the release. Without that, Cornyn told reporters, the verbal assurances are hollow.
Cornyn laid out his position Wednesday afternoon:
"All I want them to do is to confirm what he said in his sworn testimony before the Judiciary Committee, with regard not only to the weaponization fund, but also who is protected from future audits and what agencies of the federal government are bound by the release. It's pretty simple, and we've actually sent them a redline strikeout."
Earlier that day, Cornyn said he had not seen "a single piece of writing that is responsive to what I've requested." The frustration was plain. Breitbart reported that Cornyn had canceled a meeting with Blanche and told reporters the Justice Department knows what it needs to do "but they simply refuse to do it."
The Justice Department did not sit idle. A DOJ official said the department sent a written proposal to Cornyn's staff on Tuesday and looked forward to "further discussion around any outstanding concerns." But Cornyn dismissed it as falling short of what he had asked for.
Late Wednesday, after Cornyn, Tillis, and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa met behind closed doors, the DOJ transmitted a new response to both senators. A source familiar with the matter said the latest document "addresses their concerns." Whether Cornyn or Tillis accepted it remained unclear.
The committee's spokesperson framed the delay as strategic, not fatal, saying the vote was "postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report Attorney General-nominee Todd Blanche, who is highly qualified for the job." The Washington Examiner noted that Chairman Grassley was working to "set President Trump's nominees up for success in committee, not failure."
The DOJ spokesperson told CBS News Wednesday night that the department "has been in regular communication with Committee members for weeks, and we look forward to continuing to work productively with Senators to address any concerns."
Tillis, for his part, appeared more hopeful than Cornyn. He echoed a pattern familiar to Senate Republicans who have struggled to unify behind key votes. He described Cornyn's position as firm but not final, telling reporters that Cornyn "is not walking away from it. He's just being realistic about planning a markup."
AP News reported that a federal judge had previously ruled Trump engaged in self-dealing through the IRS lawsuit and expressed concern that Blanche, who had personally represented Trump before joining the DOJ, signed the settlement. That detail adds a layer to Cornyn's demand: the senator wants to know not just that the fund is dead, but that the underlying terms of the settlement are clearly defined and legally bounded.
Cornyn and Tillis want written confirmation that the tax audit immunity covers only existing audits, not future filings. That distinction matters. If the settlement's audit protection extends indefinitely and binds agencies beyond the IRS, it could amount to a blanket shield for the president and his family, a provision that would be difficult for any senator to defend publicly, regardless of party.
The confirmation delay is the second postponement. Senate Republicans already operate with razor-thin margins, and the committee needed all twelve Republican votes to advance Blanche favorably. The vote had already been pushed back once from the prior week.
President Trump weighed in from the Oval Office, offering a different explanation for Cornyn's resistance. "Maybe John Cornyn is upset with me because I didn't endorse him," Trump told reporters. Cornyn lost his May primary to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Cornyn rejected that framing flatly: "That's a convenient excuse, and it happens to be untrue."
The standoff is not ideological. Cornyn is not questioning Blanche's qualifications or his conservative credentials. He is asking the Justice Department to do something it has so far resisted, put its own nominee's sworn testimony into a formal, enforceable document. Tillis summed up the impasse: "We made it clear that we need the language to move forward with the markup."
Blanche, who has served as acting attorney general while awaiting confirmation, has faced Senate scrutiny on other fronts as well. He recently made headlines for statements about the DOJ's Epstein investigation, and the broader confirmation season has featured pointed exchanges between GOP senators and Biden-era DOJ officials over the department's direction.
Newsmax confirmed the postponement, noting that both Republican senators have threatened to withhold support until the DOJ provides clearer answers on the settlement. With the Senate's August recess approaching, the window for resolving the dispute is narrow.
Cornyn's demand is not complicated. He wants the DOJ to write down what Blanche already said under oath. The fact that the department won't, or can't, do that is the whole problem.
