Sen. John Cornyn said he will meet with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday about killing President Donald Trump’s controversial settlement fund — a requirement for the Texas Republican to vote for his confirmation this week.
“I told him we need paper. We need it in writing. We don’t need well wishes or, you know, impressions,” the Texas Republican told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “We need concrete confirmation of what he testified to in his hearing.”
Cornyn is a key swing vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, split 12-10 between Republicans and Democrats. An even break would effectively kill the nomination.
“Fake news alert: there is no ‘deal’ on Blanche nom. They know what they have to do.” Cornyn posted on X earlier in the day.
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Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) — who also lost his reelection bid and will leave Congress next year — has also made it clear that he’s not an automatic “yes” on Blanche.
“The key for Todd, or anybody going through Judiciary Committee, is being pretty tight on January the 6th. They better not have said for one minute that the people that beat up police officers … were righteous people,” Tillis said in June. “You come even close to saying that, you don’t have a [chance] of getting my vote in Judiciary.”
Blanche has repeatedly told senators that the proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, part of Trump’s settlement with the IRS, is dead and won’t be coming back. But Cornyn has pointed out that Blanche has acknowledged that the proposed “anti-weaponization” fund remains on paper as part of the settlement with Trump.
“What I want is the written document to say the same thing he did in his sworn testimony in front of the Judiciary Committee, and, as you recall, what he said is the weaponization fund is dead. He said the audit immunity basically doesn’t extend to parties beyond the lawsuit, and it doesn’t also extend to future actions by federal agencies other than the IRS,” Cornyn told reporters Monday.
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