Todd Blanche faces rocky Senate confirmation process for attorney general

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is headed for a rocky Senate confirmation process to take on the role permanently as several Republican senators raise concerns about his credibility and independence from President Trump.

Blanche faced withering criticism from Senate Republicans during a private meeting last month at which more than 20 GOP lawmakers vented their frustrations with the administration and panned the proposal he rolled out to establish a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.

Blanche on Tuesday assured GOP senators in at least two private meetings that the fund is dead and he won’t support it if Trump tries to revive the idea in the future.

But he still faces skepticism over the fund and other issues, including an agreement that Trump reached with his administration to shield himself and his family from IRS audits of past tax returns.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, grilled Blanche during a private meeting Tuesday over the agreement not to audit the president or his family.

“It was a positive meeting. There’s still some unanswered questions about the tax audits and the scope of any immunity from future audits,” Cornyn said, adding that he would not make a decision about supporting Blanche until he testifies before the committee.

“He provided some clarity about the scope” of the deal with the IRS and “promised to have a more in-depth briefing over the details,” Cornyn said, summarizing his conversation with Blanche. “There’s a lot of confusion about whether it’s prospective, whether it includes things other than just taxes and maybe other government investigations.”

Cornyn is one of at least two Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, along with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whose responses to Blanche are being closely scrutinized.

Tillis hasn’t been shy about opposing Trump’s priorities since he announced his retirement last year and has been a vehement critic of the anti-weaponization fund. And Cornyn has begun to show an independent streak since losing his primary to a Trump-backed challenger.

Blanche needs to get the vote of every Republican on the Judiciary Committee to be able to advance to the Senate floor for a final confirmation vote — where he could face still more skeptics.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) isn’t predicting the outcome of the Senate confirmation process, noting that Blanche will have to clear several hurdles.

Asked if Blanche has the votes to be confirmed, Thune said: “Uh, we’ll see.”

“I think a lot of it will depend on how he performs at the Judiciary Committee. If he can get a strong vote coming out of the Judiciary Committee, then my expectation is we would be able to process him on the floor, but you got a couple of people on that committee that you’ll have to convince,” he added.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), another member of the Judiciary Committee, said Blanche has some credibility issues because of past statements he made about the anti-weaponization fund and advised him to do a thorough job in answering Cornyn’s questions about the agreement shielding Trump and his family from audits.

“It will be a lively discussion. I just don’t know — I like Todd; I think he’s a very capable guy. He’s made some bold statements to us that put his credibility squarely on the line. Will he be confirmed or not? I don’t know,” Kennedy said.

The Louisiana senator noted that Blanche’s affiliation with the $1.8 billion fund “is controversial.”

“He said publicly — categorically, unequivocably — there won’t be one and there won’t be one in the future. The president has hinted otherwise. I’m sure that subject will come up,” he said.

On the subject of the agreement with the Department of Justice and IRS not to audit or investigate Trump or his family over past tax returns, Kennedy said: “If I were the nominee, I’d listen to Sen. Cornyn because he might vote no if he doesn’t get a satisfactory answer.”

Tillis, meanwhile, said he wants Blanche to be able to guarantee that the fund, which he warned could pay out settlements to people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is dead for good.

“I still want that 1.776 turkey dead with a stake in it,” he said of the assurances he wants from the administration that it won’t attempt to resurrect the $1.776 billion fund.

“That’s got to be done by the time the [confirmation] vote occurs,” he said.

Tillis has also warned that anything in Blanche’s record that suggests he voiced support for Jan. 6 rioters would pose a big obstacle to him voting yes.

He noted that Blanche played a constructive role in getting the Justice Department to drop its criminal investigation of former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a probe that Tillis loudly criticized as lacking merit. Tillis blocked Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to succeed Powell as Fed chair, to put pressure on the administration to drop the charges against Powell.

There are several other Republican senators undecided about how to vote on Blanche if his nomination reaches the floor.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) also wants Blanche to provide more answers about the agreement to protect Trump and his family from IRS audits.

“I’ll probably ask Mr. Blanche that,” she said.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who faces a tough reelection race in a state that voted for former President Biden in 2020 and former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, said she would wait until after the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing before deciding how to vote on Blanche.

She met with him Tuesday morning.

“With a nominee of this importance, I wait until the hearing has taken place, but we had an extensive discussion on the anti-weaponization fund, which he has assured me with no equivocation at all that he is not for it, will not pursue, it will not exist,” Collins said.

“We talked about several other issues as well, but I’m going to wait until the hearing before making a final decision,” she said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who played a leading role in trying to amend the budget reconciliation package that passed this month to include language prohibiting the establishment of an anti-weaponization fund, said he wants Blanche to assure him that his loyalty will be to the Constitution over Trump, alluding to Blanche’s previous job as Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer.

“I want to make sure that he is not just the president’s personal attorney who is the AG, he’s the AG who used to be the president’s personal attorney,” he said. “Is he carrying out the agenda for the American people or is he carrying out the agenda for the president? That’s my question.”