{"id":967819,"date":"2026-07-29T23:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/967819\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T23:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:30:25","slug":"blanche-nomination-at-risk-of-delay-as-republican-demands-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/967819\/","title":{"rendered":"Blanche nomination at risk of delay as Republican demands answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A planned vote to move forward with Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination for attorney general<\/a> appeared in doubt Wednesday as a key Republican senator demanded more assurances from the Justice Department about the settlement of President Donald Trump\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> against the Internal Revenue Service. <\/p>\n

GOP Sen. John Cornyn, a crucial swing vote, told reporters he was not willing to support Blanche\u2019s nomination until the Justice Department adequately addressed in writing his concerns about the settlement that afforded Trump and members of his family protection from tax audits. <\/p>\n

The dispute threatened to upend plans for the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote Thursday on whether to advance Blanche\u2019s nomination to the full Senate. Another Republican on the committee, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, has backed Cornyn\u2019s position, and just one Republican holdout could sink Blanche\u2019s prospects. <\/p>\n

After hours of negotiations, Cornyn said Wednesday evening that there had been no progress toward satisfying his demands. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re stonewalling,\u201d Cornyn, who lost the Texas Republican primary in May, said of the Justice Department. <\/p>\n

At the center of the fight is the settlement of Trump\u2019s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS that included a deal to drop tax claims against the president and a now-scrapped plan to create a $1.776 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d<\/a> to compensate people who believe they were wronged by the Justice Department. The Justice Department said in June<\/a> that it was no longer moving forward with the \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d amid bipartisan outrage but officials have said the audit immunity agreement remains in place. <\/p>\n

Blanche didn\u2019t answer shouted questions from reporters as he left Capitol Hill, where he had been meeting with senators Wednesday. A person familiar with the matter said the Justice Department had provided Cornyn\u2019s office with a written proposal seeking to address his concerns around the audit immunity agreement and the fund. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about sensitive discussions surrounding Blanche\u2019s confirmation.<\/p>\n

Trump on Wednesday downplayed any concerns about Blanche\u2019s path to confirmation, calling his attorney general pick and former personal attorney \u201coutstanding.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe John Cornyn\u2019s upset with me because I didn\u2019t endorse him,\u201d Trump told reporters in response to questions about the senator\u2019s demands. <\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the state\u2019s Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, easily defeating Cornyn. Trump had endorsed Paxton. <\/p>\n

Some lawmakers have questioned whether the \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d could be resurrected absent a commitment in writing from the Trump administration that it is dead, especially since Trump has expressed continued support for the idea. Blanche had previously resisted requests for a formal written retraction, though he told senators at his confirmation hearing<\/a> earlier this month that the administration would be willing to help craft legislation to bar the creation of the fund. <\/p>\n

Cornyn has also demanded clarification from the Justice Department on the scope of the tax immunity deal. He has pressed the administration to modify that piece of the settlement to make clear that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re been trying to help them get to a conclusion here and they won\u2019t let us. It\u2019s befuddling to me,\u201d Cornyn said.<\/p>\n

The settlement resulting from Trump\u2019s lawsuit over his leaked tax returns has drawn intense scrutiny both in Congress and in court. The judge handling the case said in a scathing ruling<\/a> earlier this month that Trump had effectively engaged in self-dealing through the lawsuit and that she was troubled Blanche had signed the settlement, given his prior representation of Trump.<\/p>\n

Blanche has said he disagrees \u201cwith the judge\u2019s insinuations\u201d about him. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporters Seung Min Kim and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A planned vote to move forward with Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination for attorney general appeared in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":967820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[327,69,57,47593,25227,18880,336,50,80,618,358,16538,95,5028,94,67,326,132,68,333,76450,93],"class_list":["post-967819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-congress","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-government-appointments-and-nominations","tag-john-cornyn","tag-ken-paxton","tag-lawsuits","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-taxes","tag-texas","tag-thom-tillis","tag-todd-blanche","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-house-of-representatives","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-voting","tag-voting-rights","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117005873806569683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/967820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}