Senate Panel Scraps Blanche Vote, and Trump Says He'd Pull the Nomination Until Cornyn and Tillis 'Are Out of Office'

Todd Blanche's nomination to be attorney general stalled Wednesday night when the Senate Judiciary Committee scrapped a planned Thursday vote, and by Thursday morning President Donald Trump was publicly floating the idea of yanking his own nominee — temporarily, and on his own terms.

"I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office," Trump wrote in a social media post, referring to Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, the two committee members withholding support. Trump said he would keep Blanche on as acting attorney general and renominate him later, and bragged that both senators' "political careers have been ended by my action." Both are leaving Congress in January: Tillis announced his retirement last year after clashing with Trump over his tax-and-spending bill, and Cornyn lost this year's Texas primary to Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Trump endorsed.

The fight is not about Blanche's résumé. It is about the settlement of Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over his leaked tax returns. That deal dropped tax claims against the president and created a nearly $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" to compensate people who say the Justice Department wronged them — money that could have flowed to defendants charged in the Jan. 6 riot. It also included a sweeping immunity arrangement shielding Trump, his family and his businesses from audits of past returns. The department said in June it was no longer moving forward with the fund after bipartisan outrage, but officials have said the audit immunity remains in force.

Cornyn and Tillis have spent weeks demanding written guarantees that the fund is genuinely dead and clarification of how far the tax immunity reaches. Cornyn wants the settlement modified to make explicit that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from scrutiny of future filings. Lawmakers have questioned whether the fund could simply be revived, particularly since Trump has continued to voice support for the idea. Blanche had resisted a formal written retraction, though he told senators at his July 15 confirmation hearing that the administration would help craft legislation barring the fund's creation.

"For some reason, I don't know whether it's the staff of the DOJ or who it is, but they simply, they know what they need to do, but they simply refuse to do it," Cornyn told reporters this week. Earlier Wednesday he accused the department of "stonewalling" and said "the ball is in Blanche's court." Tillis pushed back on the notion that this is a two-senator problem, saying the president "is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis."

After hours of negotiations, the Justice Department sent Cornyn and Tillis new language Wednesday evening, according to a person familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not enough. A committee spokesperson said the vote would be postponed "as work continues to secure sufficient support," and the department said afterward that it looks "forward to continuing to work productively with Senators to address any concerns." Blanche, who had spent Wednesday meeting senators on Capitol Hill, walked past shouted questions from reporters.

Blanche, Trump's former personal defense lawyer, has been a contentious pick from the start, drawing questions about his handling of the files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the targeting of Trump's political opponents and the broader politicization of the department. Democrats are united against him; most Republicans are for him. The settlement itself has drawn scrutiny in court as well as in Congress — the judge handling the case wrote in a scathing ruling this month that Trump had effectively engaged in self-dealing and that she was troubled Blanche had signed the deal given his prior representation of the president. Blanche has said he disagrees "with the judge's insinuations."