Cornyn noncommittal on Blanche attorney general nomination after pressing him in hearing

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Outgoing GOP Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) said he remains uncommitted on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ) after pressing him about the Trump administration’s controversial “anti-weaponization” fund during a Wednesday confirmation hearing.

“I continue to have some concerns, but I’m not going to make any decisions at this point,” the Republican senator told reporters outside the hearing room. “I’m going to wait until we actually vote on a confirmation.”

During Blanche’s Wednesday confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Cornyn pressed Blanche about his decision to sign off on a document that “forever barred” the IRS from auditing President Trump’s previous tax returns.

“There’s so much that’s unusual about this,” the Republican senator told Blanche.

The May agreement — which prohibited the IRS from pursuing claims against the president, his family or businesses — stemmed from the DOJ’s decision to voluntarily dismiss a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS for leaking Trump’s tax returns.

The DOJ announced it would use these funds to create a controversial $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate people who allege they have been wronged by the government. The Trump administration later dropped the fund following criticism from both sides of the aisle.

On Monday, a federal judge ruled that the lawsuit that led to the fund amounted to collusion. Cornyn had expressed concern about the agreement and the judge’s ruling, and he predicted lawmakers would question Blanche about it Wednesday.

When pressed by Cornyn at the hearing about whether Trump could sue to reestablish the fund, Blanche said that the case’s “plaintiffs have no power over the fund.”

“I suppose they could bring a lawsuit, and then we would litigate it,” he said. “But even if we were litigating it, there’s no fund. So the results of such litigation, whatever it would be, wouldn’t be a revival of the fund.”

Cornyn told reporters outside the hearing room Wednesday that he was skeptical of Blanche’s statement that the fund no longer existed.

“I mean the argument was that the anti-weaponization fund is dead, and what he confirmed was that it’s not,” the GOP senator said. “The settlement agreement can’t be changed without written consent of the parties. There is no such written consent of the parties, and he admitted that it could be enforced as a matter of contract.”

Cornyn has split with the Trump administration on several key issues since he was defeated by a Trump-endorsed candidate in the Texas Republican primary in May. As a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, he is a key vote.

Just one GOP “no” can bottle up Blanche’s nomination in committee.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also pressed Blanche about his decision to block IRS audits on Trump’s previous tax returns.

Durbin asked the acting attorney general whether this order meant that Trump, his family and businesses “have no responsibility under the tax laws.”

“We do it with all kinds of people. It’s not just President Trump,” Blanche responded. “It doesn’t make any of these individuals above the law.”

Earlier this month, top Senate Democrats sent letters to several companies tied to the Trump family in which they questioned whether the DOJ’s settlement agreement covered them from having their previous tax returns examined by the IRS.

“There are significant questions about the validity of this agreement, but on its face it could give not only the President and his family a broad and valuable get-out-of-jail-free card for any financial crimes or misconduct: it may also protect a more expansive group of entities — including your company — solely because of its ties to the President or his family,” the lawmakers wrote in their letters to these companies.

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Dick Durbin

Donald Trump

John Cornyn

Todd Blanche

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