The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination on a 12-10 party-line vote Tuesday, but his path to full Senate confirmation remains narrow after Sen. Susan Collins announced she will vote no.
Blanche, who has served as acting attorney general since April, cleared the committee only after two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, dropped weeks of opposition. Both had refused to advance the nomination until Blanche rescinded a Department of Justice order establishing a $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund. Blanche formally pulled the order Sunday night, and the committee voted the next business day.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune can now schedule a full Senate floor vote. But the math is tight, and Blanche may have no room left for defections.
Cornyn, one of the two holdouts, told the committee Tuesday that he had reached an agreement with Blanche narrowing the scope of the fund and a related tax audit immunity deal tied to a lawsuit between Trump and the IRS. The Anti-Weaponization Fund had been created through a settlement in that case and was intended, in the DOJ's description, "to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare."
Cornyn said the written agreement limits audit protection to the actual defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury Department, and restricts the settlement's beneficiaries to the original plaintiffs.
As the Associated Press reported, the Justice Department confirmed in writing that it would not proceed with the controversial fund, a step that satisfied both Cornyn and Tillis.
Cornyn framed his vote as a matter of institutional responsibility, not personal opposition to Blanche:
"The Department of Justice does not need a temporary, unconfirmed nominee as our nation's top law enforcement official. Trump needs someone in this role, as well, with a strong legal mind."
He added that he expected the department to honor the agreement going forward. The standoff between Cornyn and the White House over the IRS settlement terms had dragged on for weeks, stalling a nomination that otherwise had solid Republican support.
At a Cabinet meeting Friday, President Trump weighed in on the holdup, and acknowledged, with unusual candor, that the dispute had a personal dimension. Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Cornyn in the Texas Republican Senate primary several months ago. Paxton won.
Trump told reporters:
"This is being done by a senator. And I don't really blame him, to be honest with you. I endorsed his opponent, and as soon as I endorsed his opponent, his opponent went through the roof, and he won the primary election in Texas for the Senate."
Trump defended both Blanche and the fund itself, arguing the nominee should not bear the cost of a broader political disagreement:
"Todd Blanche is a very, very good man, and he shouldn't be in the middle of this. He should get approved because you will never get anybody like him. You're never going to get anybody. And to make him a pawn in this whole thing."
On the Anti-Weaponization Fund, Trump said it was never intended for his personal benefit. "This fund was for those people that have been weaponized, that have been abused," he said, adding, "There's essentially never been a group of people treated so badly as these people, and this fund, this fund was not for me." The broader dispute over the IRS lawsuit and the fund had become the central obstacle to Blanche's confirmation for months.
Even with the committee vote behind him, Blanche faces a narrower path to confirmation than most Trump nominees. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announced she will vote against him on the Senate floor.
Collins cited the DOJ's conduct under Blanche's acting tenure, telling reporters:
"While I believe Mr. Blanche is a capable lawyer, the Department of Justice has become increasingly political. Mr. Blanche has taken several actions that have further eroded the Department's independence, and that is the basis for my vote to oppose his confirmation."
Collins's defection is significant because of arithmetic. With Sen. Mitch McConnell absent, Republicans can afford to lose only two votes on the floor. Collins accounts for one. Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana remain publicly uncommitted. Sen. John Curtis of Utah has said he will vote yes.
Murkowski offered a cautiously positive signal after the committee vote. She told Fox News, "I think certainly the fact that he has signed this order, basically disbanding [the fund], that's a pretty good step." But she stopped short of committing her vote.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana was more direct: "He'll be confirmed."
Democrats on the committee voted unanimously against Blanche and have signaled they view the deal with Cornyn as cosmetic. Sen. Dick Durbin put the argument plainly: "The fund can easily be revived with a new order from the Department of Justice 15 minutes after Mr. Blanche is confirmed as attorney general."
That objection carries a factual logic that even supporters of the nomination have not directly rebutted. The rescission was an executive order from the acting attorney general, not a statutory change. A confirmed attorney general would have full authority to issue a new order restoring the fund or creating a successor program. Cornyn's agreement with Blanche rests on the department's stated commitment to honor the limits, an expectation, not an enforceable constraint.
The same senators who once voted to confirm Merrick Garland as attorney general spent weeks blocking a Republican president's nominee over a policy dispute that could have been resolved through legislation rather than a confirmation standoff. Whether that leverage was principled oversight or political retribution depends on whom you ask, and Trump, at least, offered his own theory.
The New York Post reported that Thune could bring Blanche's nomination to the floor as early as this week, before the Senate recesses until September 14. A delay would leave Blanche in acting status for another six weeks, an outcome neither the White House nor most Senate Republicans want.
Blanche formally declared the Anti-Weaponization Fund order "shall have no force or effect" when he rescinded it Sunday. The fund had been valued at $1.776 billion, according to the DOJ announcement. Its creation had drawn bipartisan scrutiny, with critics on both sides questioning whether a settlement in a tax case should be used to establish a broad compensation mechanism for people who claimed to have been targeted by federal agencies.
The confirmation fight over Trump's pick to lead the Justice Department has exposed a fault line within the Republican majority that goes beyond Blanche himself. Cornyn and Tillis used their committee seats to extract concessions from the executive branch, a move that looks like oversight when your side does it and obstruction when the other side does. The question now is whether Murkowski and Cassidy will demand their own price, or whether the deal Cornyn struck is enough to get Blanche across the finish line.
A party that holds the White House, the Senate, and the House should be able to confirm its own attorney general. If it cannot, the problem is not the nominee, it is the majority.
