Two Republican holdout senators reversed course and announced support for Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination after the Justice Department formally killed a controversial $1.8 billion fund, a deal that now gives the GOP the votes to confirm him.
Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina issued a joint statement Monday confirming they will vote to advance Blanche's nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Just the News reported. The committee scheduled a vote for Tuesday morning to send Blanche to the full Senate floor, where all Republicans are expected to back him.
The breakthrough came after Blanche, who has been serving as acting attorney general, provided written confirmation that the Department of Justice would abandon the so-called "anti-weaponization" fund, a $1.8 billion pot of money established as part of a DOJ settlement with the IRS over the leak of President Donald Trump's tax returns. Cornyn and Tillis had refused to support Blanche until the fund was formally terminated in writing.
Blanche issued a formal order rescinding the fund late Sunday, declaring that the May 18 order establishing it "shall have no force or effect," the New York Post reported.
In the order, Blanche stated plainly: "This Order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund."
The two senators had been the only Republicans standing between Blanche and confirmation. Their opposition centered on two concerns: the anti-weaponization fund and the scope of a tax audit immunity deal tied to the IRS settlement. They wanted written assurance that both issues would be resolved before they would cast a vote.
The deal also clarified that Trump's tax audit immunity applies only retroactively and only to parties named in the original IRS lawsuit, AP News reported. That limitation addressed concerns that the immunity provision could be read as a forward-looking shield.
With those concessions in hand, the senators announced their support. Their joint statement was direct:
"We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund. 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."
The resolution followed weeks of friction between the holdout senators and the White House. President Trump had publicly threatened to withdraw Blanche's nomination if Cornyn and Tillis did not fall in line, the Washington Examiner reported. At a Camp David cabinet meeting, Trump framed the dispute as his own doing, not Blanche's.
"I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused. This has nothing to do with Todd; this was me," Trump said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Chuck Grassley, holds a 12-10 Republican majority. With Cornyn and Tillis now voting yes, Blanche's nomination faces no remaining obstacles at the committee level. A full Senate vote is expected later in the week, Breitbart reported.
The flip matters because the Republican majority in the Senate is narrow enough that two defections on any nomination can stall or sink it. Cornyn and Tillis used that leverage to extract real policy concessions, a reminder that even within a unified party, individual senators can force the executive branch to the table. Senate Republicans have shown a willingness to use party-line votes on IRS-related matters when the stakes demand it.
Not every Republican senator was convinced the concessions were permanent. Sen. Tommy Tuberville suggested the anti-weaponization fund could return once Blanche is confirmed.
"He'll bring it back. He'll get Blanche in, and then, probably after this Congress, anyway, they'll do it," Tuberville said, National Review reported.
That remark undercuts the permanence of the deal. If Tuberville is right, the written order Blanche issued Sunday is a procedural step to clear the nomination, not a lasting policy change. Cornyn and Tillis got their concession on paper, but paper can be rewritten.
The anti-weaponization fund at the center of the dispute was established by the DOJ as part of a settlement with the IRS. That settlement arose from the leak of President Trump's tax returns, a breach that drew bipartisan condemnation when it occurred. The fund's stated purpose was to guard against the weaponization of federal agencies, but its sheer size and its connection to a politically charged settlement made it a lightning rod.
The New York Post placed the fund's value at $1.776 billion. Cornyn and Tillis argued that a fund of that scale, created through a settlement rather than through legislation, amounted to an end-run around congressional authority over federal spending. Their demand was straightforward: kill the fund or lose our votes.
The broader fight over Trump's IRS audit protections has played out across multiple fronts in Congress. Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee recently attempted to overturn those protections, but Republicans in the House have been advancing Trump's legislative priorities through reconciliation, keeping the administration's agenda on track despite intra-party disputes like the Blanche standoff.
Blanche's path to the nomination itself has been shaped by the broader political battles surrounding the Trump administration's use of the Justice Department. The House's scrutiny of former special counsel Jack Smith reflects the same tension, how the DOJ exercises its power and who holds it accountable.
If confirmed, Blanche will move from acting attorney general to the permanent role. His confirmation would end a prolonged vacancy at the top of the Justice Department during a period when the administration has been pressing an aggressive law-enforcement agenda on immigration, federal prosecutions, and agency reform.
The committee vote Tuesday morning will be the first formal test. If the nomination clears committee along party lines, as expected, the full Senate vote could come before the end of the week. No Democratic support is expected, but none is needed. The Republican majority, now unified behind Blanche, is sufficient.
The episode also illustrates a pattern in this Congress: Senate votes often come down to leverage and timing more than ideology. Cornyn and Tillis did not oppose Blanche on philosophical grounds. They opposed the fund. Once the fund was gone, so was their objection.
That is how the confirmation process is supposed to work, senators use their votes to extract accountability from the executive branch. The question now is whether the accountability sticks, or whether Tuberville's prediction proves right and the fund quietly reappears once the confirmation dust settles.
Washington has a long memory for promises made during confirmation fights and a short one for keeping them. Cornyn and Tillis got the deal in writing. Whether that paper holds will say more about this Justice Department than any confirmation vote ever could.