WASHINGTON — A Senate committee is poised to vote Tuesday on advancing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to run the Justice Department, after the former personal attorney to President Donald Trump won over Republican senators who had been threatening to derail his confirmation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee vote comes after Blanche reached a late-Sunday agreement with GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Both senators had demanded written guarantees tied to the settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
Cornyn and Tillis had made clear they would not back Blanche unless the Justice Department put in writing that it was not proceeding with a $1.8 billion fund intended to compensate Trump allies who say they were targeted for political prosecution. The Trump administration had announced that fund as part of the IRS settlement.
Following several days of negotiations, Blanche issued an order Sunday night stating “beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund.”
Since the settlement of Trump’s IRS lawsuit was announced, the order said, “No Members were appointed; no funds were transferred; no process for receiving claims was established; no claims were paid.”
The two Republican senators had also sought more precise language on another provision in the settlement that would give Trump and members of his family protection from certain tax audits.
As part of the agreement, the Justice Department clarified in writing that the tax audit immunity provision applies only to claims that were open when the settlement was reached and does not shield Trump from scrutiny of future tax filings. The clarification also states that the tax agreement covers only the parties that filed the lawsuit: Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization.
Democrats argue Blanche’s order still falls short, saying it does not permanently prevent the Trump administration from resurrecting the fund after his confirmation as acting attorney general. They have urged legislation to block it for good. The order also does not bar the administration from compensating Trump allies — including people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — through an existing claims process that allows individuals to seek damages if they believe the government wronged them.
Blanche has faced intense scrutiny regarding his ability to maintain independence from the White House, the Justice Department’s pursuit of the president’s political foes and the agency’s handling of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation.
But it was the settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS that threatened to derail Blanche’s nomination, forcing a delay in the committee vote last week amid pressure from the two Republican senators, who are not returning to Capitol Hill after their terms end in January.
Trump’s lawsuit has been sharply criticized because of the highly unusual way it was handled, with the president challenging an agency overseen by the executive branch he leads. A judge last month slammed the case as an improper exercise in self-dealing and referred one of Trump’s attorneys who filed it for potential disciplinary action.
Blanche, a former federal prosecutor and key member of Trump’s defense team as the Republican battled four indictments, arrived at the Justice Department last year as deputy attorney general. He was elevated to acting attorney general following Attorney General Pam Bondi’s failure to meet Trump’s demands to successfully prosecute his perceived political opponents.
While Blanche insisted he wasn’t auditioning for the permanent post, he moved swiftly to accelerate investigations into Trump foes and advance other White House priorities, drawing condemnation from critics who say he has not shed his title as Trump’s personal lawyer.
Shortly after Blanche took the top post, the Justice Department moved to indict longtime Trump adversary James Comey, the former FBI director, on charges of threatening the 47th president by posting a social media photograph of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47.”
Comey’s lawyers have accused the Justice Department of misleading judges, submitting documents containing false statements and withholding key facts to bring what the defense described as a politically motivated prosecution.
Blanche separately appointed Joseph diGenova, an 81-year-old former Justice Department prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to oversee a Florida-based investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired over the last decade to undermine Trump.
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