Senate Advances Todd Blanche's Attorney General Nomination After Deal on 'Anti-Weaponization Fund'

The Senate appears ready to advance the nomination of Todd Blanche to be the next attorney general after Sen. John Cornyn struck a deal to formally end the "anti-weaponization fund" to compensate President Donald Trump's political allies. Sen Thom Tillis, the other Republican holdout to confirm Blanche in the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he is also satisfied with the deal.

A spokeswoman for Cornyn, R-Texas, confirmed the deal Monday in a statement to CNBC.

"Sen. Cornyn has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice, which will be issuing a formal order permanently terminating the anti-weaponization fund and making clear in a binding written document that the scope of the audit settlement is limited to only the plaintiffs, including the President, and the IRS," the spokesperson, Natalie Yezbick, said.

Blanche, who is the acting attorney general, posted a set of documents overnight that he said were formally ending the fund that had ground his nomination to a halt. Senators on the Judiciary Committee, including Cornyn and Tillis, R-N.C., had warned the fund could result in payouts to violent rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and vowed to block Blanche until it was dead.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on Blanche's nomination Tuesday after delaying a previously planned vote due to concerns about the fund.

Cornyn and Tillis are key swing votes on the committee, which consists of 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. If either of them were to defect on Blanche and all Democrats vote no, the panel would deadlock, and Blanche would be blocked from moving forward.

After the committee vote, Blanche would still need to be approved by the full Senate with at least 50 votes. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber, which has been winnowed to 52 by the extended absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who hasn't returned to the Senate since a fall in June.

The documents Blanche posted late Sunday showed Blanche had formally rescinded the order that created the fund in May, while clarifying aspects of the May settlement of Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service that created the fund.

The DOJ also clarified aspects of that deal, which created broad immunity from tax audits for the president and members of his family.

The documents say the settlement applies "only retroactively," meaning it would not protect the president and his family indefinitely from audit. The DOJ also said the order would affect "named parties" in Trump's lawsuit against the IRS, including on release of any claims.

Despite Blanche's written assurance that the fund is dead, Trump's attorneys continue to fight in court against a judicial order that blasted the settlement deal as legally baseless. In a court filing Friday, Trump said he is appealing the July 13 order from federal Judge Kathleen Williams, which imposed nonmonetary sanctions over the "bad faith" lawsuit that led to the settlement. The sanctions include referring one of the president's lawyers to the Florida Bar for possible disciplinary action.

Later that night, Trump's attorneys asked Williams to pause that court order pending their appeal, arguing Williams' ruling "invokes serious concerns regarding fundamental tenets of justice and cannot stand." The attorneys said that if Williams does not rule on their pause request by Wednesday, they will seek relief from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.