OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
3:00 PM – Saturday, August 1, 2026
A standoff within the Senate Judiciary Committee has forced the postponement of a planned confirmation vote for Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche, with Republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis emerging as the primary roadblocks to his nomination.
The impasse reportedly centers on formal written guarantees regarding a Justice Department settlement over President Donald Trump’s tax records lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Cornyn (R-Texas) and Tillis (R-N.C.) are demanding legally binding commitments that the previously proposed $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is permanently dismantled.
Additionally, the senators are seeking to narrow the scope of audit protections granted to the president, his family and his business associates. The resistance from the two, both of whom are set to leave the Senate at the conclusion of their terms, exemplifies a rare level of intra-party friction for the Trump administration.
Cornyn, serving out his term after losing a primary challenge following Trump’s endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Tillis, who opted against seeking reelection after recurring disputes with the White House, hold key votes on the Judiciary Committee.
Their insistence on written concessions led Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to delay the committee markup rather than risk seeing Blanche’s nomination fail on the panel floor.
Cornyn has stated that while he and Tillis are spearheading the public pushback, their substantive concerns are allegedly “shared by numerous Republican colleagues” whom they claim remain uneasy about the “scope” of the Trump administration’s legal agreements.
At the center of the policy dispute is the settlement signed earlier this year to resolve the president’s lawsuit over leaked tax records. Beyond the payout mechanism for victims of agency weaponization, under the previous Biden administration, the agreement also included some tax-audit immunity provisions.
Although Blanche testified during his confirmation hearing that the payout fund was effectively dead, Cornyn and Tillis have rejected verbal assurances. They have insisted on explicit, written modifications prohibiting any future resurrection of the fund — such as through “breach-of-contract” litigation — and clarifying that audit shields do not apply to future tax filings or future commercial activities.
President Trump responded to the committee delay by proposing on social media to temporarily withdraw Blanche’s nomination until 2027, when both Cornyn and Tillis will no longer be in office.
Trump attributed the impasse to political grievances over his primary endorsements, asserting that Blanche could simply remain at the head of the Department of Justice in an acting capacity in the interim.
“If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country, to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard to get the Anti-Weaponization Bill, which takes care of those who have been so badly treated by the Crooked Joe Biden (and Obuma!) Administration (I get nothing, although I was treated horribly!), PASSED. Todd Blanche was a voice of reason! It will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done,” Trump said on Truth Social.
In turn, Tillis later argued that the White House’s “hesitation” to codify the fund’s end in writing suggests that officials may be seeking to preserve the mechanism for future use. As the DOJ and Senate leaders continue negotiations, the standoff leaves the future of the permanent directorship unresolved.
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