Senators Flip After $1.8B Fund Killed

A $1.8 billion fund meant to reward “victims of weaponization” just vanished on paper — and with it, Todd Blanche’s biggest obstacle to becoming the nation’s top lawman.

Story Snapshot

Senate Judiciary advanced Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination after a tense standoff over a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
Republican holdouts John Cornyn and Thom Tillis flipped after getting written assurances that the fund was dead and its powers narrowed.
The committee’s 12-10 vote moved Blanche past his biggest procedural hurdle, even as Trump’s tax audit immunity deal stays largely intact.
Blanche’s record as a tough-on-crime prosecutor and already-confirmed deputy attorney general helped conservatives swallow a controversial settlement.

How a billion-dollar fund nearly sank Trump’s attorney general pick

The fight was never just about Todd Blanche. It was about whether the Justice Department should run a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” program born from President Trump’s own lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

That settlement created a huge fund for people claiming the government targeted them for political reasons. Critics warned it could cut checks to January 6 defendants and other violent offenders who blamed prosecutors rather than their own choices.

Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General officially advances to the Senate floor following a 12-10 committee vote after key GOP holdouts backed the nominee! pic.twitter.com/GK2QwKlfUK

— MEAWW News (@meawwcom) August 5, 2026

Republican senators who usually back President Trump balked. They refused to move Blanche’s nomination until the fund was gone.

Senator Thom Tillis and Senator John Cornyn, both on the Judiciary Committee, signaled they would not vote for any attorney general who kept the weaponization fund alive. Their message was simple: the Justice Department should not become an ATM for people attacking law enforcement.

The deal that “drove a stake through the heart” of the fund

The standoff ended when Blanche, still acting attorney general, issued an order formally rescinding the fund and posted proof of it for the world to see. Cornyn said the agreement had “driven a stake through the heart of the weaponization fund,” framing the reversal as a clean kill, not a cosmetic tweak.

Tillis, who had been one of Blanche’s toughest Republican critics, acknowledged the rescission and accepted written clarifications that narrowed how far the settlement could stretch.

Those assurances focused on two pressure points: whether January 6 defendants could benefit and how broad Trump’s tax immunity really was. Blanche told senators the fund would not move forward and that new guidance tightened the deal’s reach. That quiet paperwork mattered more than any TV sound bite. Only after those documents changed did the votes change.

A narrow committee vote and a law-and-order sales pitch

With the fund “officially” terminated, the Senate Judiciary Committee finally took up Blanche’s nomination. The panel advanced him on a 12-10 vote, with Republicans holding together just enough to clear the first major hurdle toward becoming attorney general. The vote showed that, for most GOP senators, killing the fund and tightening the settlement were enough to offset earlier anger about the deal.

Senator Chuck Grassley opened Blanche’s hearing by casting him as a classic law-and-order choice. Grassley highlighted Blanche’s record as a prosecutor, his prior Senate-confirmed role as deputy attorney general, and support from crime victims’ families.

Blanche’s earlier confirmation to the number-two job at Justice by a 52-46 vote gave conservatives a baseline comfort: the Senate had already judged him fit to oversee federal law enforcement.

What still worries skeptics who follow the paper trail

Even with the fund gone, the underlying IRS settlement still raises hard questions. Reporting shows Trump, his family, and his businesses gained sweeping protection from further tax audits on past returns as part of the deal.

Some legal experts argue that such broad immunity looks less like routine settlement and more like a special shield for one powerful client of the attorney general. That tension between ordinary discretion and special treatment will not vanish with a single committee vote.

The public record still does not show the full settlement text, side letters, or ethics opinions. We know what reporters and senators say about the agreement, but not every clause Blanche signed or every internal memo that blessed it. That silence creates a vacuum.

Critics, especially on the left, easily fill it with claims of “corruption” and “weaponization.” Defenders lean on Blanche’s track record and the fact that Republican holdouts accepted his fixes.

Why conservatives ultimately backed Blanche despite the controversy

For many conservatives, the key test was whether Blanche would listen to constitutional concerns and rein in a bad idea once exposed. Ending the fund showed he would not let the Justice Department become a partisan payout machine.

Keeping Trump’s audit protections while tightening their scope fit a familiar pattern: defend executive power, but respect limits set by Congress and political reality.

President Trump’s strong public push to “confirm Todd Blanche without delay” reinforced that Blanche is his trusted soldier at Justice. For Republican senators, that trust cuts both ways. It raises fear of loyalty over independence, but it also promises a Justice Department that will not be used to punish political enemies.

In the end, Cornyn and Tillis judged that killing the weaponization fund and narrowing the settlement protected core conservative values: restrained government, respect for law enforcement, and a Justice Department that answers to voters through their elected president, not to unelected bureaucrats or activist judges.