Senate panel to vote on Blanche nomination after fund dispute

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote Tuesday on Todd Blanche’s nomination after John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina refused to back him unless the Justice Department put in writing that a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund was dead.

The holdout turned on a settlement tied to Trump-related IRS claims, where the fund was created as part of the tax-claims deal. Cornyn and Tillis wanted the department to revise the settlement terms and lock down the promise that the money would not be revived, a sign that the fight was not about Blanche’s qualifications alone but about whether the department could be used to build a politically directed payout pool.

Blanche had already told Senate Democrats he had “made a mistake” with the fund during a confirmation exchange in April 2025, and he later told lawmakers the fund was “dead” and the Justice Department was “not moving forward” with it. That message, however, did not settle the issue inside the Republican conference once Donald Trump publicly defended the fund in late July and threatened to bring it back if the nomination stalled.

Trump then sharpened the pressure, telling Tillis and Cornyn that he would push again to make the fund “a reality” if they kept delaying Blanche’s confirmation. By the end of the week, Blanche’s vote was back on the Judiciary Committee’s schedule for Tuesday after Trump said the settlement fund was dead, but the two senators still wanted the pledge in writing before moving ahead.

The episode has become a test of how far Senate Republicans are willing to go in backing Trump’s effort to reshape the Justice Department. The concession to Cornyn and Tillis is the clearest sign yet of where the lines still exist inside the party: a settlement fund attached to Trump-related claims can draw support as a tool of grievance politics, but only up to the point where enough Republicans decide it looks too much like a slush fund to leave to oral assurances.