WASHINGTON — A Senate committee advanced acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination on Tuesday after Republican holdouts were satisfied that a nearly $1.8 billion Justice Department fund wouldn’t be resurrected to provide payouts to pardoned January 6th rioters or other victims of prosecution under the Biden administration.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 to send Blanche’s confirmation to a full chamber vote.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the committee, said before the vote that concerns from Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) about the Anti-Weaponization Fund “were shared by many — including this senator.”
“My vote to advance Mr. Blanche’s nomination goes beyond this document: We need a stabilizing force at the Department of Justice,” said Cornyn. “And Mr. Blanche deserves the opportunity to provide that.”
“As our nation’s top law enforcement officer, President Trump needs someone in this role as well with a strong legal mind, but who also is close enough to him to give him confidential legal advice, to tell him hard truths,” the Texas Republican charged.
Blanche formally rescinded that $1.776 billion fund on Sunday, stating it “shall have no force or effect.”
A May 18 order from the Department of Justice had created it as part of a settlement with President Trump from an IRS lawsuit he filed earlier this year. The settlement agreement also gave the Trumps potential immunity from audits.
The president insisted the fund would compensate victims of prosecution even as far back as former President Barack Obama’s administration, but critics — including several GOPers — viewed it as a “slush fund” for Trump allies.
Tillis dubbed it a “payout pot for punks.” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, also called it the “cop-beaters fund.”
Additionally, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said that the fund, “along with the the sweeping liability release order that Mr. Blanche signed, might well be the most brazenly corrupt and unethical thing this administration has attempted.”
Blanche had declared the fund “dead” during his July 15 confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but Cornyn and Tillis demanded a “written document” affirming that and clarifying whether the president and his family were shielded from future IRS audits.
Trump had sued the IRS in 2024 for $10 billion following the leak of his and other family members’ confidential tax returns.
Tillis begged Blanche ahead of the Tuesday vote to end politicized prosecutions such as the recent indictment against former FBI Director James Comey in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The ex-FBI boss was charged in April for threatening to kill Trump in an Instagram post that showed seashells in the shape of the numbers, “86 47,” apparently using a slang term for “get rid of” and the president’s term figure.
“Some bonehead in North Carolina thinks that that’s a crime,” Tillis said. “Well, they better damn sure have information to back it up, because if all it is is a picture, that person should lose his job, his or her job.”
“The people who went after Republicans in the Biden administration should probably be disbarred or disciplined,” he added. “So at the end of the day, don’t act like you’re standing on some sort of moral high ground if you start attacking this administration, because I can match you almost deed for deed.”
