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The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed a vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination after two Republican senators demanded written guarantees about the settlement his Justice Department cut with President Donald Trump.
Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, Blanche is Trump’s former personal defense lawyer. He has been running the Justice Department in an acting capacity since Trump fired Pam Bondi in April, and Trump formally nominated him for the permanent job in June. Blanche came under significant bipartisan heat for overseeing a deal that ended a lawsuit Trump filed after an IRS contractor illegally leaked his tax returns. The Trumps had asked for $10 billion. Instead, they got a settlement creating a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to pay out to people who say they were victims of government weaponization, along with a related order barring the government from pursuing claims against Trump, his two oldest sons, and the Trump Organization over tax returns filed before the settlement. Watchdogs called it a slush fund and asked how a deal this big came together between the president’s personal lawyers and DOJ lawyers who ultimately answer to him, with no judge signing off on any of it. Blanche said in June the fund was scrapped, though he has repeatedly declined to put that in writing.
What’s going on now: Republican senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina are refusing to advance Blanche’s nomination. The committee, where Republicans hold a two-seat advantage over Democrats, was set to vote Thursday morning on sending Blanche to the full Senate. With every Democrat expected to vote no, a single Republican defection is enough to sink him. Late Wednesday night, the committee pulled the vote.
In a statement, a committee spokesperson said, “Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement. Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report Attorney General-nominee Todd Blanche, who is highly qualified for the job.”
Neither holdout has anything left to lose. Cornyn lost his primary runoff to Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, Tillis is retiring, and both leave the Senate in January.
Trump floated a workaround Thursday, posting that he has “no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.” Cornyn’s answer: “I don’t know whether they think they can wait us out or we’ll cave, but I assure you we won’t.”
This all comes as Blanche fends off broader accusations that he puts loyalty to Trump above the department’s independence, fueled in part by his answer when Sen. John Kennedy asked in July whether he considers the president a friend: “I’m his lawyer,” Blanche said, before correcting himself to “was his lawyer.”
