The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 on Tuesday to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general to the full Senate, ending weeks of delay caused by a dispute among Republicans themselves.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., can now schedule a confirmation vote for Blanche, acting attorney general since April.
The nomination had been stalled by two outgoing Republican senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, who withheld support until Blanche rescinded an order creating a $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, which he did Sunday night.
Cornyn said he used his leverage to ensure the fund, created through a Justice Department settlement with the IRS, would not extend beyond the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit against the agency.
“The document will help limit the substance and scope of the audit protection to the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury, and it limits the parties to the audit settlement to the plaintiffs, the people who brought the lawsuit, and no one else,” Cornyn said Tuesday.
“Given this agreement with Mr. Blanche, I expect the department to live up to this in future litigation, and I will vote to advance him out of the committee today,” he added.
President Donald Trump suggested Cornyn’s delay had less to do with policy than politics, saying Cornyn was retaliating after Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Republican Senate primary against Cornyn earlier this year.
“Todd Blanche is a very, very good man, and he shouldn’t be in the middle of this. He should get approved because you will never get anybody like him. You’re never going to get anybody. And to make him a pawn in this whole thing,” Trump told reporters Friday during a Cabinet meeting.
“This is being done by a senator. And I don’t really blame him, to be honest with you. I endorsed his opponent, and as soon as I endorsed his opponent, his opponent went through the roof, and he won the primary election in Texas for the Senate,” Trump said.
Trump also defended the now-rescinded fund, insisting it was never meant to benefit him personally but rather Americans he says were unfairly targeted by federal law enforcement and tax authorities in recent years.
“There’s essentially never been a group of people treated so badly as these people, and this fund, this fund was not for me,” Trump said. “This fund was for those people that have been weaponized, that have been abused.”
Blanche’s confirmation now rests with Thune, and Senate Republicans hold a majority sufficient to make passage likely.
