Senate Judiciary Committee advances Blanche's nomination for attorney general
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Updated on: August 4, 2026 / 11:06 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday advanced Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general to the Senate floor, clearing a key hurdle for President Trump's pick to lead the Justice Department.
The GOP-led panel voted 12-10 along party lines to advance Blanche's nomination. The acting attorney general overcame skepticism from Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina over the $1.8 billion fund designed to compensate victims of alleged "weaponization" by the government and earned their support.
With Blanche's nomination advancing out of the committee, it heads to the full Senate for a vote. A simple majority is needed to confirm him to the post, and no more than three Republicans can break ranks, assuming all Democrats oppose Blanche. Further, if Sen. Mitch McConnell remains absent, Blanche could only lose two votes before Vice President JD Vance would have to cast a tie-breaking vote. So far, one Republican — Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — has said she will vote no, citing the $1.8 billion fund and other actions that she argued have made the Justice Department "increasingly political" in a Monday statement.
The concerns from Tillis and Cornyn over the fund and a sweeping deal to grant the president immunity from tax audits threatened to derail Blanche's nomination. But late Sunday, following weeks of negotiations with the senators, Blanche issued a new order that rescinded his initial directive creating the "anti-weaponization" fund and clarified that the immunity provision covers only potential audits of previous years' tax returns and applies only to Mr. Trump, his two oldest sons and the Trump Organization.
The order from Blanche does not modify the terms of the settlement agreement that Mr. Trump reached with the IRS in May to resolve a civil lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns by a former government contractor. The president has continued to express support for the "anti-weaponization" fund and threatened Saturday to revive it if Cornyn and Tillis opposed Blanche as attorney general.
Still, Cornyn and Tillis said in a joint statement Monday that they are "pleased" with the formal order ending the fund. The Justice Department's acknowledgement of the limits of the tax immunity deal addresses concerns from multiple GOP colleagues, the two senators said.
"We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon," Cornyn and Tillis said.
In remarks during the Judiciary Committee's hearing, the two senators defended the terms they laid out in order to support Blanche's nomination and the commitments they secured from the Justice Department.
"Given this agreement with Mr. Blanche, I expect the department to live up to this in future litigation," Cornyn said, adding that his vote to advance Blanche's nomination "goes beyond this document. We need a stabilizing force at the Department of Justice and Mr. Blanche deserves the opportunity to provide that."
The department, he said, "does not need a temporary, unconfirmed nominee as our nation's top law enforcement officer."
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, thanked Cornyn and Tillis for working with the Justice Department to address concerns about Mr. Trump's immunity deal with the IRS and the "anti-weaponization" fund.
"It's just common sense, what Tillis and Cornyn are asking out of the executive branch of government," he said, adding "it's a crime that it took so long" to secure clarifications on the limits of the tax deal.
Grassley said that since Blanche took the helm of the Justice Department in a temporary capacity, it has "thrived under his leadership."
"Today, I'm not only voting to advance Todd Blanche's nomination, I'm voting for the safety of the American people," he said.
But Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, said Blanche "has no business" leading the Justice Department, and he accused the acting attorney general of attempting to reshape the department by firing longtime officials and replacing them "with unqualified MAGA loyalists who will rubber-stamp President Trump's corruption."
"His word is not enough for most, not even for some of my Republican friends. Even his word under oath is not credible enough," Durbin said, highlighting demands from senators that Blanche commit his promises to writing.
The Illinois Democrat stressed that Blanche's new orders regarding the settlement agreement between Mr. Trump and the IRS are not signed by the parties — which include the president's two oldest sons and the Trump Organization — and are therefore "unenforceable." The president and his sons could still sue to enforce the original terms of the deal, and the "anti-weaponization" fund can be revived shortly after Blanche is confirmed, Durbin warned.
"To my Republican colleagues, you gave Mr. Blanche the benefit of the doubt when you supported his nomination to be deputy attorney general," he said. "Seventeen months later, there is no doubt where his loyalty will lie."
Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi was removed as the nation's top law enforcement officer in April. Mr. Trump nominated Blanche for attorney general in June.
A former personal defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, Blanche came under scrutiny from members of the Judiciary Committee over the Justice Department's handling of the release of files related to the federal investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his meeting last year with Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and the department's settlement with Mr. Trump to resolve his civil lawsuit against the IRS.
That deal included the creation of the $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund that would provide payments to…
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