Blanche Rescinds $1.8B Fund, Clearing Path for AG Vote

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a formal order late Sunday rescinding the Justice Department's plan for a roughly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. The move came after weeks of negotiations with Republican senators who had withheld support for his confirmation until the proposal was terminated in writing.

The fund originated from a May settlement in which the Trump administration dropped a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. It was intended to provide compensation to individuals who claimed they faced politically motivated prosecutions under prior administrations. Critics within the Senate raised concerns that the structure could direct taxpayer resources toward allies or participants in the January 6 Capitol events. Two retiring Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, insisted on explicit written assurances before advancing Blanche's nomination.

Blanche's order stated that no appointments had been made to administer the fund, no money transferred, and no claims paid. It also clarified that related tax protections from the settlement would apply only retroactively to named parties in the original lawsuit and would not extend to future filings. A spokeswoman for Cornyn confirmed that the agreement satisfied the senator's conditions. The committee is scheduled to vote on the nomination Tuesday.

President Trump had expressed continued interest in the concept even after verbal commitments that the fund would not proceed. He indicated at one point that he might seek congressional appropriations to revive elements of it. Tillis responded that such statements underscored the need for a permanent written termination rather than temporary assurances. The episode illustrated internal Republican resistance to an expansive use of settlement authority that could have created ongoing fiscal obligations.

The original IRS settlement had drawn scrutiny for bundling the compensation mechanism with limits on audits of the Trump family and associated businesses. Blanche's latest document narrowed the scope of those protections in line with the senators' demands. No operational steps had advanced before the rescission, according to Justice Department statements.

This development reflects standard legislative oversight of executive branch initiatives. Senators from the president's party applied leverage through the confirmation process to constrain a program whose design invited questions about accountability and resource allocation. Blanche, who has testified under oath that the fund would not move forward, used the order to document that position formally ahead of the committee vote.

The sequence shows how confirmation proceedings can enforce boundaries on administrative actions even within the same party. With Democrats uniformly opposed to the nomination, Republican unity on the committee depends on addressing such concerns directly. Blanche's written commitment removes the immediate obstacle, though broader questions about the settlement's origins and the proper limits of compensation funds remain open for congressional review.