Todd Blanche cleared a key Senate hurdle after Republican holdouts got written assurances that the disputed fund would be shut down.
Quick Take
- The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Blanche’s attorney general nomination in a 12-10 vote after a deal with GOP holdouts.
- Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis pushed for written guarantees before they backed the move.
- The fight centered on the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund tied to the Trump administration’s IRS settlement.
- Blanche had already been confirmed once before, as deputy attorney general, by a 52-46 Senate vote in 2025.
Holdouts Get Their Written Guarantee
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general after Cornyn and Tillis accepted written assurances that the disputed anti-weaponization fund would be terminated.
Reporting said Blanche formally rescinded the fund, and the two senators said they wanted the change in writing before they would support the nomination’s advance. The committee then voted 12-10 to send Blanche’s nomination closer to the Senate floor.
Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General officially advances to the Senate floor following a 12-10 committee vote after key GOP holdouts backed the nominee! pic.twitter.com/GK2QwKlfUK
— MEAWW News (@meawwcom) August 5, 2026
Cornyn said the deal gave the issue a hard stop, while Tillis said the written clarification narrowed the settlement’s reach.
Their support mattered because the Judiciary Committee could not move Blanche forward without them. That made the vote less about a fresh endorsement of Blanche’s record and more about clearing a political roadblock that had grown around the IRS settlement.
The Fight Was About More Than One Fund
The controversy grew out of a Justice Department settlement linked to President Trump’s IRS lawsuit. The deal created a $1.8 billion fund that critics called a political payoff, and the later rescission became the price of moving Blanche’s nomination ahead.
Cornyn and Tillis said the new written order limited the settlement to the parties in the case and permanently ended the fund, which is why they moved from resistance to support.
Why This Vote Mattered
Blanche’s committee win mattered because it showed he still had enough Republican support to survive an ugly internal fight. The committee vote did not end the confirmation battle, but it removed the first major obstacle.
It also showed how much modern confirmation politics can turn on a single disputed document, then shift again once leadership produces a fix that skeptical senators can defend back home.
Grassley and other Republicans framed Blanche as a law-and-order choice. Grassley’s side of the case leaned on Blanche’s work inside the Justice Department and on support from more than 300 Angel Families, a line meant to show public backing from victims of violent crime.
That kind of argument helps in a confirmation fight, but it does not answer the sharper question that bothered the holdouts: whether the IRS settlement crossed a line.
Blanche Had Already Passed the Senate Once
Blanche was not new to the chamber. The Senate confirmed him as deputy attorney general on March 5, 2025, by a 52-46 vote. That earlier vote gave him a ready-made argument that he had already been judged fit for high office.
Still, the attorney general fight unfolded under a harsher spotlight because the settlement controversy tied his nomination to a broader debate over Justice Department judgment and political trust.
That is why the final shape of the story is so plain. Blanche did not glide through on résumé alone. He had to absorb a public rebuke, accept a narrow fix, and win back two Republican votes before the committee would move.
For supporters, that looked like discipline and dealmaking. For critics, it looked like damage control forced by a deal that should never have been written that way in the first place.
Sources:
apnews.com, youtube.com, theguardian.com, time.com, whitehouse.gov
