Two GOP senators back Blanche for attorney general after he rescinds $1.8bn fund

Coverage spread: 6 sources — 2 left · 2 center · 2 right

Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.

Where they agree

Cornyn and Tillis agreed to advance Todd Blanche’s AG nomination after securing a written, binding order ending the $1.776–1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund.”
The Justice Department clarified that audit-immunity from the IRS settlement applies only retroactively and only to the named parties (Trump, his family, the IRS and Treasury), not to future audits or other parties.
The dispute originated from Trump’s lawsuit settlement with the IRS over the 2019 tax-return leak by contractor Chaz Littlejohn, and Cornyn/Tillis’s votes were essential since either could have blocked Blanche in the evenly divided situation.
Trump had publicly defended the fund even as his own nominee moved to kill it, and threatened to revive it legislatively if Blanche’s confirmation failed.
Fox News and the New York Post emphasize the political combat between Trump and Cornyn, including Trump tying the fight to Cornyn’s Texas primary; CBS and The Guardian focus more on the legal/procedural text of the agreement.
CNBC uniquely highlights that Trump said he had not personally read the agreement his own DOJ signed off on, suggesting some detachment from the deal.
The New York Post includes background on victims Trump referenced (“they lost their families, they committed suicide”) from his Friday Camp David remarks, a detail other outlets omit.
The Guardian’s live-blog coverage bundles in an unrelated item on Trump declining to call for Rep. Max Miller’s resignation over domestic abuse allegations, which no other outlet in this set connects to the Blanche story.

What the deal changes

Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced Monday they will vote to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ending weeks of holdout pressure that had stalled his confirmation. The breakthrough came after acting Attorney General Blanche, late Sunday, formally rescinded a May 18 order that created a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” declaring it would have “no force or effect.” Blanche also issued a binding written clarification stating that a related audit-immunity agreement applies only to the named plaintiffs and defendants in Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS — namely Trump, his family, the IRS and the Treasury — and covers only past conduct, not future audits.

The fund and the audit language both stemmed from the settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the 2019 leak of his and his family’s confidential tax returns to The New York Times by IRS contractor Chaz Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2024. The fund would have been overseen by a five-member panel approving payouts to people who claimed to be victims of politically motivated prosecution — a category Cornyn, Tillis and other senators warned could have included people convicted for the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

How the standoff got resolved

Cornyn and Tillis, both of whom are not seeking reelection, said from the start they wanted written, legally enforceable guarantees rather than verbal assurances — Blanche had already told the Judiciary Committee at his July 15 confirmation hearing that the fund was “dead,” but the senators pushed for documentation. The committee had originally planned to vote on Blanche’s nomination the previous Thursday but postponed it amid the impasse. Cornyn told reporters he and Tillis “got a stake driven through the heart of the weaponization fund,” and both senators said in a joint statement that the resolution addressed concerns “multiple of our Republican colleagues share.” The Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, is scheduled to vote Tuesday morning; if it advances, Blanche would still need 50 votes in the full Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority narrowed to 52 by Sen. Mitch McConnell’s continued absence following a June fall.

Trump’s response

President Trump had defended the fund as recently as Friday at a Camp David cabinet meeting, saying people affected “were horribly treated, horribly abused” and that “this has nothing to do with Todd; this was me,” adding he wanted them “compensated for the pain.” Over the weekend he threatened that if the Senate blocked Blanche’s confirmation, he would push to revive the fund through legislation. On Monday, after the deal was announced, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he hadn’t personally reviewed the new agreement — “I understand there’s been a sign off… I don’t know what they agreed” — while still defending the original fund concept. Separately, Trump’s attorneys are continuing to fight in court against a federal judge’s order criticizing the original IRS settlement, with the judge previously saying the Justice Department had not made a good-faith effort to defend the government and that the arrangement looked like a collusive effort to benefit the president.

How the coverage differs

Outlets converge on the same core sequence but frame it differently. The Guardian and CBS News stress the mechanics of the written agreement and its legal limits, emphasizing that audit protection is retroactive and confined to named parties. Fox News and the New York Post lean into the political drama — Trump’s clashes with Cornyn, including tying the fight to a “bitter Texas primary,” and quote Trump’s continued defense of the fund even as his own nominee dismantled it. CNBC includes the detail that Trump said he hadn’t read the agreement himself, underscoring some distance between the president and the deal’s specifics. The Guardian’s separate live-blog item notes Trump’s unrelated Monday comments declining to call for Rep. Max Miller’s resignation over domestic abuse allegations, a story CBS, Fox, CNBC and the Post do not connect to the Blanche coverage.

Why the fight mattered

The standoff tested whether two retiring Republican senators, no longer facing reelection pressure, could extract real concessions from the Trump administration on a nominee central to the Justice Department’s operations. It also highlighted internal GOP unease over using settlement funds tied to a presidential lawsuit to potentially compensate people connected to the January 6 attack, and over how far a president’s family could be shielded from future tax scrutiny. With the committee vote set for Tuesday, Blanche’s path to a full Senate confirmation now appears substantially clearer than it did just days earlier.

Sources

Featured photo: Daniel Torok via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)