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\n

Todd Blanche repeatedly told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization fund\u201d he helped launch as acting attorney general was now, in fact, \u201cdead.\u201d But one Republican on the panel isn\u2019t sold.<\/p>\n

At his confirmation hearing to lead the Justice Department permanently, Todd Blanche had to convince Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas \u2014 two GOP senators the president undermined in their election bids \u2014 that they no longer had to worry about the fund. Critics in both parties feared was intended to pad the pockets of President Donald Trump\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n

Assuming all Democrats vote in unison against confirming Blanche in committee, a single Republican \u201cno\u201d on the Judiciary panel would be fatal to Blanche\u2019s chances of getting to the floor. Tillis and Cornyn, who are both leaving Congress at the end of the year, have left the door open to defecting.<\/p>\n

Tillis, who retired after Trump attacked him over policy disagreements, wouldn\u2019t promise he would vote for Blanche. But he walked away Wednesday saying Blanche did \u201ca good job\u201d and expressed confidence he might be able to persuade his colleagues to approve a measure declaring the fund \u201clegally moot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornyn is a different matter. Having lost his reelection bid after Trump endorsed his GOP primary challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, over him, the senator now seems ready to make life difficult for Trump. And Wednesday, Cornyn made clear that he truly was undecided on Blanche and wasn\u2019t in any huge rush to make up his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t have to make a decision until the vote is called, so I’m not ready to make the decision now,\u201d he told reporters following the hearing.<\/p>\n

A former state supreme court judge and attorney general, Cornyn added that no one has been pressing him to support Blanche at this time: \u201cI feel no pressure,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n

But in keeping his cards close to his vest, Cornyn is exposing himself to enormous scrutiny between now and July 30 \u2014 the earliest the Judiciary Committee is likely to convene a vote on Blanche if Democrats insist delaying consideration. Senate GOP leaders want to confirm Blanche on the floor the first week of August before they leave for the month-long recess \u2014 and as one of the two swing votes on the panel, Cornyn is now without question the biggest question mark.<\/p>\n

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was confident that committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had the situation under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gotta believe that Grassley and team whipped the vote beforehand and thought, \u2018we’re in good shape on this.\u2019 They can’t lose a single Republican vote,\u201d Hawley said.<\/p>\n

Grassley expressed confidence Blanche will be confirmed before the Senate leaves town in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect that \u2026 what it takes to satisfy a couple members [in] the Republican Party will be satisfied, and he’ll be confirmed probably the last week before we go on August recess,\u201d Grassley said.<\/p>\n

Blanche was on Capitol Hill on the eve of his confirmation hearing having last-minute meetings with lawmakers of both parties, and he could come back again to meet with Cornyn or any other holdouts in the coming days and weeks. A Justice Department spokesperson did not return a request for comment about Blanche\u2019s plans, however.<\/p>\n

A White House spokesperson, asked if the administration would dispatch a lobbying effort to ensure Cornyn votes \u201cyes,\u201d referred back to a Truth Social post from Trump saying that \u201cEvery Republican Senator should vote to CONFIRM Todd Blanche, ASAP!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear, in any event, that a White House charm offensive or arm-twisting campaign would work on Cornyn. Besides any lingering anger over Trump’s endorsement of Paxton, Cornyn is ultimately stuck on Blanche\u2019s response to his line of questioning during the hearing about the \u201canti-weaponization fund\u201d which emerged from a settlement the Justice Department facilitated in response to Trump\u2019s $10 billion lawsuit for leaking his tax information.<\/p>\n

While Blanche has backed down from going ahead with setting up the fund amid bipartisan backlash, Cornyn was unsatisfied by Blanche\u2019s answer to the question of whether that settlement will remain an \u201cenforceable contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the contract remains enforceable, it could allow Trump to sue for a breach of that contract \u2014 keeping alive the possibility that both the anti-weaponization fund and the component of the settlement that would shield Trump, his family and their business interests from past IRS audit scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Blanche conceded that it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese settlement agreements are contracts, and so he can’t just say, \u2018Well, it’s gone away,\u2019 because the parties, notably President Trump \u2026 could bring a lawsuit to enforce it, and [Blanche] said, \u2018yeah, that’s right,\u2019\u201d Cornyn said after the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of what I wanted to do is make sure that we understood what the lay of the land was with regard to the weaponization fund \u2014 and it\u2019s not dead. It could be revived,\u201d Cornyn said separately Wednesday, \u201cand I think he confirmed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats are putting their own pressure on Republicans to oppose Blanche, in committee and on the floor. On Thursday, they’ll host an Epstein victim whose identity was mistakenly exposed as part of the release of the Epstein files Blanche oversaw as deputy attorney general, and an ousted DOJ pardon attorney, as part of the outside witness panel coming before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on Blanche\u2019s record.<\/p>\n

At a press conference after the hearing, Senate Judiciary Democrats wouldn’t predict whether any Republicans would end up voting against Blanche \u2014 though several of them mentioned Cornyn\u2019s line of inquiry as a pivotal moment in the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the questioning by Sen. Cornyn really got to the heart of the issue when it came to Blanche signing that forgiveness of tax liability for the president and his family,\u201d said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an outrage,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s nothing like that in history. Perhaps some Republicans will be convinced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelsey Brugger, Alex Gangitano and Erica Orden contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Todd Blanche repeatedly told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization fund\u201d he helped launch as acting attorney general was now, in fact, \u201cdead.\u201d But one Republican on the panel isn\u2019t sold. At his confirmation hearing to lead the Justice Department permanently, Todd Blanche had to convince Republican Sens. Thom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}