President Donald Trump’s effort to install Todd Blanche permanently atop the Justice Department hit a Republican roadblock Wednesday night when the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a crucial vote on his nomination.
The committee had been scheduled to consider Blanche’s nomination at 9 a.m. Thursday. Its official calendar now lists the executive business meeting as “POSTPONED,” with no replacement date announced.
The delay came after Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina refused to support Blanche without written assurances addressing a controversial settlement between the Trump family and the IRS.
“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure,” a Judiciary Committee spokesperson said in a statement first reported by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and cited by Mediaite.
“Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement,” the spokesperson continued. “Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report Attorney General-nominee Todd Blanche, who is highly qualified for the job.”
Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney, became acting attorney general after Pam Bondi’s departure from the administration. Trump subsequently nominated Blanche to remain in the position permanently, which requires Senate confirmation.
Republicans hold 12 of the Judiciary Committee’s 22 seats. With the committee’s 10 Democrats expected to oppose Blanche, a single Republican defection could leave the panel deadlocked and prevent the nomination from advancing normally to the full Senate.
Cornyn and Tillis have focused their objections on a settlement resolving Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department over the unauthorized disclosure of his tax records.
The agreement included a proposed $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” intended to compensate people who claimed they were unfairly targeted by the federal government. It also included protections concerning IRS audits of Trump, his family and associated businesses.
Although the Justice Department has said the fund will not move forward, Cornyn wants that assurance formally incorporated into the written agreement. He is also seeking language clarifying who is covered by the audit provisions and ensuring they do not provide prospective immunity from future tax scrutiny.
“All I want them to do is to confirm what he said in his sworn testimony before the Judiciary Committee,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday, according to CBS News.
Cornyn said his request extended to “who is protected from future audits and what agencies of the federal government are bound by the release.”
During his confirmation hearing earlier in July, Blanche insisted the fund was already finished.
“The settlement fund is just not moving forward,” Blanche told Cornyn. “It never started. No money went from the Treasury to any other account.”
But Cornyn noted that the agreement requires changes to be approved in writing by the parties. The Texas Republican said the Justice Department’s subsequent proposals failed to adequately address his concerns.
“We’ve tried to make it easy for them,” Cornyn said Wednesday, according to The Texas Tribune. “They won’t take the help.”
Cornyn later canceled a planned meeting with Blanche after the senator’s demands remained unresolved. He then met with Tillis and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa as Republicans attempted to find a path forward.
The Justice Department said negotiations would continue.
The department “has been in regular communication with Committee members for weeks,” a DOJ spokesperson told CBS News, adding that officials would continue working with senators “to address any concerns.”
Trump, meanwhile, suggested Cornyn’s opposition might be connected to the president’s decision to endorse Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state’s Republican Senate primary. Paxton defeated Cornyn in May.
“Maybe John Cornyn’s upset with me because I didn’t endorse him,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “I don’t know what it is. But I haven’t heard that there’s a problem. I heard he’s going through quite nicely.”
Cornyn rejected that explanation.
“That’s a convenient excuse, and it happens to be untrue,” the senator said.
The postponement does not kill Blanche’s nomination, but it gives the administration an open-ended deadline to satisfy Cornyn and Tillis before Grassley attempts another committee vote.
