Congress
GOP senators keep wary as DOJ tiptoes away from ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’
The Justice Department took a small step back Monday from its controversial $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” It wasn’t nearly enough to quell the furor on Capitol Hill.
Republican senators, including some top leaders, said a DOJ statement that it would “abide by” a federal judge’s recent ruling to temporarily halt any payouts did not do enough to clear the intraparty concerns that have thrown the GOP’s immigration enforcement bill into limbo.
Instead they nudged President Donald Trump to make a more explicit move to renounce the fund, which could be used to pay participants in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and other Trump political allies that have been subject to federal prosecution.
“It’s pretty clear that the president has to say very explicitly that there’s not going to be a weaponization fund,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters.
Sen. James Lankford, a member of the Senate GOP leadership team, added that the administration needs to “say what they actually mean.” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), another junior party leader, said the fund still needs “more investigation” and that there are still “a lot of questions” for the administration to answer.
Those warnings come as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche heads back to Capitol Hill Tuesday for the first time since a heated closed-door meeting last month with GOP senators that led to the scuttling of planned votes on a more than $70 billion funding package for immigration enforcement agencies.
In a scheduled appearance before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Blanche is likely to face more pointed questions about the fund and its future. During an appearance before Senate appropriators last month, Blanche refused to put any concrete guardrails on how the $1.8 billion might be paid out — specifically refusing, for instance, to rule out payment to Jan. 6 rioters.
This time, he will be under pressure to say more as Republicans grow more eager to revive the immigration enforcement bill this week — legislation they are counting on to fund agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.
The administration’s obstacle is that there were wildly different interpretations of the DOJ statement Monday. Some, like Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), said the statement about respecting the court decision left the fund “moot.”
But others said the language fell short. The order is in place pending a June 12 hearing before a Virginia district judge, who could then remove or extend the injunction.
Enough Republican senators to block progress on the immigration bill, given the united Democratic opposition, said there were unanswered questions that could keep the bill from moving forward without a clear resolution.
“The reconciliation bill looks like a broken arm with the bones sticking out,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). “They have to abide by the district court decision — that’s in the Constitution. I’d have to know more about their position on the weaponization fund to know whether it would be enough to dislodge the reconciliation bill.”
“If it means it’s completely pulled, then that would satisfy me, but I haven’t heard anybody say that that is actually what is happening,” added Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). She also hinted she could oppose the immigration enforcement bill regardless of how the fund debate plays out.
The qualms aren’t limited to the Senate. One House Republican granted anonymity to speak frankly about the situation said the fund was “DOA” in the closely divided House and that it “seems telling this is the court order they decide to abide by.”
Some Republicans in the House are privately mulling how to add language to the reconciliation bill that would kill off any future attempts by Trump to create such a fund, adding another complication to the stalled effort, according to the House Republican and two other GOP lawmakers.
Senate Republicans will discuss the status of the fund and the immigration enforcement bill during a closed-door lunch Tuesday, according to several Republican senators — just hours before Blanche is set to testify on the other side of the Capitol complex.
Also testifying Tuesday is Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is expected to underscore the need for the much larger tranche of immigration enforcement funding to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, for his part, characterized the Justice Department’s comments as reflecting a broader shift away from the fund by the Trump administration.
“The way the statement is worded, I think it’s clear that they’re not proceeding with the fund, but obviously whether that’s sufficient to satisfy a number of our members is something we’re still sorting through,” Thune told reporters.
He added that Republicans should know by Tuesday if they are going to be able to revive the immigration enforcement bill this week.
The risk for GOP senators is a certain flurry of Democratic amendments to the legislation meant to expose incumbents to politically risky votes just months ahead of the midterm elections. Under the party-line process Republicans are employing, Democrats can force a slew of amendment votes before the bill’s final passage.
“The first amendment I will offer will be to ban the slush fund permanently and forever,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Monday. “And if Republicans try to use toothless constraints to make the slush fund more palatable, we will press them to dismantle it entirely.”
To help inoculate the bill against efforts to add in language related to the fund, Thune said Monday night Republicans would remove a section of the bill related to the Justice Department. That, Republicans believe, will require any amendments related to the department to clear a higher 60-vote threshold instead of a simple majority.
But several GOP senators didn’t completely close the door when asked about adding language related to the DOJ fund into the bill or supporting separate legislation. Some Senate Republicans could also still vote to add a preemptive ban to the bill or vote for other amendments that would limit or nix the fund, four Republican aides acknowledged.
Such a step, if it’s not explicitly backed by Trump, could threaten to sink the overall bill.
Asked if he was worried about a possible Trump veto if the fund was banned, Thune said, “Oh yeah, don’t you?”
Calen Razor and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact.
Trump told reporters earlier Friday the fund is “dead” but added “I wish it weren’t.”
“I’d like to see them compensated,” he added, referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” said a Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.
Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.
Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.
After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.
President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.
Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.
Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”
On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.
“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.
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