Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche now has a clear path to the permanent position after appeasing demands from Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) to modify a controversial settlement for President Donald Trump.
In a statement on Sunday, Blanche announced that the Justice Department had officially rescinded the settlement agreement to block any chance of a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund from taking form. Last week, Sen. Cornyn and Sen. Tillis delayed the confirmation vote for Blanche after he declined to put in writing his promise to eliminate the fund and clarify the settlement's IRS audit provisions.
“My team and I have met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions,” Blanche said.
The statement also reiterated that Blanche had already told members of Congress the fund was dead in multiple testimonies.
“The Acting Attorney General stands by all of his July 15, 2026 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, including answers to questions asked by Senator Cornyn related to the scope of the applicability of the May 19, 2026 Order,” the statement said.
But Sen. Cornyn said he has been clear on the conditions the attorney general nominee needed to meet to receive his support.
“From the outset, [Sen. Tillis] and I were clear that we needed a written document addressing our concerns… that included language constraining the scope of the audit protection by limiting it to the parties of the Settlement Agreement and ending the anti-weaponization fund,” Sen. Cornyn said in an X post on Monday.
In a joint statement, the two senators said they were “pleased” by the formal termination of the fund, while clarifying that the audit immunity part of the deal was also off the table.
"The Department has acknowledged in a binding written order that the audit settlement is limited to the plaintiffs and the scope does not extend beyond the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury, addressing concerns that multiple of our Republican colleagues share," Sen. Cornyn and Sen. Tillis said.
The confirmation vote is now expected to take place later today, but the rift between Sen. Cornyn and Trump appears to remain after the president claimed the Texas senator was rebelling because he had not received Trump's endorsement.
Trump also raised further concerns by suggesting that if Blanche is not confirmed, the controversial $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund could once again become a possibility.
“If they don’t approve Todd, I’d put it back on the table,” Trump told reporters. “A lot of people like it. A lot of big supporters of Trump like it.”
