Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is poised to clear a crucial hurdle Tuesday morning after two Republican holdouts announced Monday that they would support advancing his nomination to lead the Justice Department permanently.
Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) said Monday that they would vote for Blanche during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Tuesday meeting, resolving an impasse that forced the panel to postpone consideration of his nomination last week. The committee is scheduled to convene at 9 a.m., and Blanche’s nomination will be the only agenda item the lawmakers will consider ahead of the start of the August recess later this week.
Cornyn and Tillis’s support rebound followed a late-Sunday agreement under which the DOJ formally terminated a controversial “anti-eeaponization fund” and clarified the scope of tax audit protections included in a May settlement between President Donald Trump and the IRS.
“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 Monday.
A successful committee vote Tuesday would position Blanche for confirmation by the full Senate later this week, before senators leave Washington until Sept. 14.
Cornyn and Tillis had demanded binding assurances that the roughly $1.8 billion fund could not be revived and that protections from IRS audits would not extend beyond the plaintiffs in Trump’s lawsuit. The proposed fund was intended to compensate people who claimed they had been unfairly targeted by the DOJ, prompting concerns that Jan. 6 defendants could receive payments.
In a written order issued late Sunday, Blanche said no members had been appointed to administer the fund, no money had been transferred, and no claims had been paid.
The department also clarified that the audit agreement applies retroactively to claims open when the settlement was reached, does not cover future tax filings, and is limited to Trump, two of his sons, and the Trump Organization.
Cornyn and Tillis said Monday that those actions also addressed concerns shared by other Republicans, including Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Curtis (R-UT), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
Democrats argued that the agreement does not foreclose other avenues for compensating Jan. 6 defendants. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday that the deal “doesn’t prevent payouts to violent insurrectionists in the future” and leaves questions about the breadth of Trump’s tax protections.
Blanche’s nomination appeared in jeopardy after the committee postponed a vote scheduled for Thursday. Trump subsequently threatened to withdraw the nomination and suggested on Saturday that he could revive the compensation proposal, or ask Congress to create it through legislation.
Tillis responded over the weekend that such a move could derail a nominee he otherwise considered qualified, adding that he hoped the dispute could be resolved by Tuesday.
CORNYN REACHES DEAL WITH DOJ AHEAD OF TODD BLANCHE NOMINATION VOTE
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) scheduled Tuesday’s meeting to give the White House more time to secure the necessary votes. His office said Friday that Grassley wanted Blanche confirmed before the recess, praising his record of “restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, joined the DOJ as deputy attorney general before becoming acting attorney general following Pam Bondi’s ouster in April.