Todd Blanche repeatedly told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” he helped launch as acting attorney general was now, in fact, “dead.” But one Republican on the panel isn’t sold.
At his confirmation hearing to lead the Justice Department permanently, Todd Blanche had to convince Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas — two GOP senators the president undermined in their election bids — that they no longer had to worry about the fund. Critics in both parties feared was intended to pad the pockets of President Donald Trump’s supporters.
Assuming all Democrats vote in unison against confirming Blanche in committee, a single Republican “no” on the Judiciary panel would be fatal to Blanche’s chances of getting to the floor. Tillis and Cornyn, who are both leaving Congress at the end of the year, have left the door open to defecting.
Tillis, who retired after Trump attacked him over policy disagreements, wouldn’t promise he would vote for Blanche. But he walked away Wednesday saying Blanche did “a good job” and expressed confidence he might be able to persuade his colleagues to approve a measure declaring the fund “legally moot.”
Cornyn is a different matter. Having lost his reelection bid after Trump endorsed his GOP primary challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, over him, the senator now seems ready to make life difficult for Trump. And Wednesday, Cornyn made clear that he truly was undecided on Blanche and wasn’t in any huge rush to make up his mind.
“I don’t have to make a decision until the vote is called, so I’m not ready to make the decision now,” he told reporters following the hearing.
A former state supreme court judge and attorney general, Cornyn added that no one has been pressing him to support Blanche at this time: “I feel no pressure,” he insisted.
But in keeping his cards close to his vest, Cornyn is exposing himself to enormous scrutiny between now and July 30 — the earliest the Judiciary Committee is likely to convene a vote on Blanche if Democrats insist delaying consideration. Senate GOP leaders want to confirm Blanche on the floor the first week of August before they leave for the month-long recess — and as one of the two swing votes on the panel, Cornyn is now without question the biggest question mark.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was confident that committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had the situation under control.
“I gotta believe that Grassley and team whipped the vote beforehand and thought, ‘we’re in good shape on this.’ They can’t lose a single Republican vote,” Hawley said.
Grassley expressed confidence Blanche will be confirmed before the Senate leaves town in August.
“I expect that … what it takes to satisfy a couple members [in] the Republican Party will be satisfied, and he’ll be confirmed probably the last week before we go on August recess,” Grassley said.
Blanche was on Capitol Hill on the eve of his confirmation hearing having last-minute meetings with lawmakers of both parties, and he could come back again to meet with Cornyn or any other holdouts in the coming days and weeks. A Justice Department spokesperson did not return a request for comment about Blanche’s plans, however.
A White House spokesperson, asked if the administration would dispatch a lobbying effort to ensure Cornyn votes “yes,” referred back to a Truth Social post from Trump saying that “Every Republican Senator should vote to CONFIRM Todd Blanche, ASAP!”
It’s not clear, in any event, that a White House charm offensive or arm-twisting campaign would work on Cornyn. Besides any lingering anger over Trump’s endorsement of Paxton, Cornyn is ultimately stuck on Blanche’s response to his line of questioning during the hearing about the “anti-weaponization fund” which emerged from a settlement the Justice Department facilitated in response to Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit for leaking his tax information.
While Blanche has backed down from going ahead with setting up the fund amid bipartisan backlash, Cornyn was unsatisfied by Blanche’s answer to the question of whether that settlement will remain an “enforceable contract.”
If the contract remains enforceable, it could allow Trump to sue for a breach of that contract — keeping alive the possibility that both the anti-weaponization fund and the component of the settlement that would shield Trump, his family and their business interests from past IRS audit scrutiny.
Blanche conceded that it was.
“These settlement agreements are contracts, and so he can’t just say, ‘Well, it’s gone away,’ because the parties, notably President Trump … could bring a lawsuit to enforce it, and [Blanche] said, ‘yeah, that’s right,’” Cornyn said after the hearing.
“Part of what I wanted to do is make sure that we understood what the lay of the land was with regard to the weaponization fund — and it’s not dead. It could be revived,” Cornyn said separately Wednesday, “and I think he confirmed that.”
Democrats are putting their own pressure on Republicans to oppose Blanche, in committee and on the floor. On Thursday, they’ll host an Epstein victim whose identity was mistakenly exposed as part of the release of the Epstein files Blanche oversaw as deputy attorney general, and an ousted DOJ pardon attorney, as part of the outside witness panel coming before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on Blanche’s record.
At a press conference after the hearing, Senate Judiciary Democrats wouldn’t predict whether any Republicans would end up voting against Blanche — though several of them mentioned Cornyn’s line of inquiry as a pivotal moment in the proceedings.
“I think the questioning by Sen. Cornyn really got to the heart of the issue when it came to Blanche signing that forgiveness of tax liability for the president and his family,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
“It’s an outrage,” he said. “There’s nothing like that in history. Perhaps some Republicans will be convinced.”
Kelsey Brugger, Alex Gangitano and Erica Orden contributed to this report.
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