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Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday are expected to advance Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination after it had been delayed over concerns from two Republican senators on the panel.
Blanche’s path to confirmation had been on hold after Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — both of whom are leaving Congress in January — raised concerns about the “anti-weaponization” fund that the Trump administration tried to establish back in May to give taxpayer-funded payments to Trump allies, potentially including Jan. 6 rioters who, Trump pardoned on his first day back in office.
If the committee approves Blanche’s nomination, it would advance to a vote before the full Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats.
Blanche said Sunday that he had reached a deal to amend the settlement that Cornyn and Tillis later said satisfied their concerns. Trump had recently defended the “anti-weaponization fund” and said he would revive the fund if Blanche’s nomination were blocked.
In a statement Monday, the two lawmakers said they were “pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund.”
“We look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon,” they added.
Blanche, who served on Trump’s legal defense team during his hush money trial, was confirmed as deputy attorney general last year. He was nominated for the position after Trump fired former Attorney General Pam Bondi in April amid reports that he was frustrated with her for not pursuing legal action against his political foes more aggressively.
The “anti-weaponization fund” would have been established with a symbolic $1.776 billion in connection with a lawsuit Trump and his family members brought against the government he controls over the leak of his tax returns.
Even with the carveouts in the Blanche documents that would block the “anti-weaponization fund” from moving forward, the Justice Department has ways to make payouts to Trump allies through the long-established Judgment Fund.
Hundreds of pardoned Jan. 6 rioters have made claims against the government and it’s not clear how the Justice Department will handle those claims moving forward, even though the government would have an easy method to get them dismissed because they weren’t filed in a timely manner. The Justice Department moved to dismiss one of the lawsuits Monday.
