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 $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, a step taken explicitly to satisfy two Republican senators whose support is required for his confirmation. The move ends weeks of internal Republican friction over a fund that originated in a May settlement between the Trump administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

The fund was created as part of an agreement that also included broad tax protections for President Trump, his family, and his businesses. It was intended to provide compensation to individuals who claimed they had been targeted by prior administrations. Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and both retiring at the end of their terms, had withheld support for Blanche until they received written confirmation that the fund would not proceed. They cited concerns that payments could reach individuals convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Blanche’s order states that no members had been appointed to administer the fund, no money had been transferred, and no claims had been paid. It also narrows the scope of the accompanying tax protections, limiting them to the named parties in the original lawsuit and applying only retroactively. A spokeswoman for Cornyn confirmed that the written assurances resolved the senator’s objections. The committee is now scheduled to vote on Blanche’s nomination on Tuesday.

The episode underscores the limits of Trump’s influence even within his own party when institutional concerns about executive overreach and the use of taxpayer funds intersect with senators’ electoral calculations. Both Cornyn and Tillis face no further primary challenges, freeing them to prioritize written guardrails over verbal assurances from the administration. Trump had continued to express support for the fund and had threatened to pursue the money through Congress if necessary, describing the effort as a response to perceived government weaponization.

Democrats on the committee remain uniformly opposed to Blanche’s confirmation, meaning Republican unity remains essential. The dispute also highlighted procedural questions about how the original settlement was structured and whether elements of the tax immunity provisions could survive in narrower form. Blanche’s statement emphasized that the department had already represented to courts that the fund was not moving forward, framing the new order as a formalization of prior testimony rather than a policy reversal.

The episode illustrates how confirmation fights can force concrete concessions even from an administration that prefers informal commitments. With the fund formally terminated in writing, Blanche’s path to Senate confirmation now depends on whether remaining Republican reservations have been addressed.