Todd Blanche wins crucial Senate committee vote, advances toward confirmation as US attorney general
Todd Blanche's nomination for US attorney general advances to the full Senate after a key committee vote, following written assurances over a controversial $1.8 billion fund and IRS settlement.
Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's close aide, moved a step closer to becoming the next US attorney general on Tuesday (4 August) after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved his nomination in a narrow party-line vote.
The decision came after Todd Blanche provided written assurances that a controversial $1.8 billion fund linked to President Donald Trump's settlement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would not proceed, helping secure the backing of two Republican senators who had raised objections.
The committee voted 12-10 to advance Blanche's nomination, sending it to the full US Senate where he is widely expected to secure confirmation despite continued Democratic opposition.
Republican concerns eased after Blanche scraps controversial fund
Todd Blanche's nomination had faced unexpected resistance from Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, who questioned the Department of Justice's role in a proposed Anti-Weaponization Fund established as part of a settlement resolving Trump's lawsuit against the IRS.
The lawsuit followed the leak of Trump's confidential tax records by a former IRS contractor, who has been serving a prison sentence since 2024.
The proposed fund, valued at approximately $1.8 billion, drew criticism after opponents argued it could become a taxpayer-funded compensation programme benefiting Donald Trump's political allies, including some defendants linked to the 6 January Capitol riot.
To address those concerns, Blanche signed an order rescinding the fund. In the document released on Sunday, he stated that the programme had never become operational, noting that no governing board had been appointed, no funds had been distributed and no claims had been processed.
Separately, the Department of Justice clarified that a related agreement concerning tax protections applied only to the original plaintiffs in the IRS settlement and did not grant blanket immunity to Trump or his family from future tax audits.
Cornyn and Tillis back nomination after receiving written guarantees
The written commitments proved sufficient to win over Cornyn and Tillis, whose support was essential for Todd Blanche's nomination to move forward.
Speaking before Tuesday's vote, Tillis criticised the proposed fund but said his concerns had been resolved. "I've never liked this 1776 fund. It made no sense to me, and I thought it was an insult to the police officers and the people that defended us on January the sixth. It's done. It's been rescinded, and I am satisfied," he said.
Cornyn defended pressing Blanche for written assurances, arguing that the guarantees carried significant weight.
"While this may sound like nitpicking to some, it's critically important not only to me but to other members of the Senate," Cornyn said. “Given this agreement with Todd Blanche, I expect the department to live up to this in future litigation.”
Democrats question Blanche's independence from Trump
Democrats argued that Todd Blanche's nomination raises concerns about the Justice Department's independence from US President Trump.
Blanche previously served as Trump's personal defence lawyer before becoming acting attorney general, prompting opposition to question whether he could lead the department independently of the White House.
Senator Richard Durbin sharply criticised Blanche's record during the committee debate.
"Instead of serving the American people and upholding the rule of law and the Constitution, Todd Blanche has aided and abetted the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States," Durbin said.
Durbin also accused Blanche of providing misleading testimony during his confirmation process regarding discussions over the proposed compensation fund.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse echoed Democratic concerns, asking: “What's left of this committee?”
Full Senate confirmation expected this week
With committee approval secured, Todd Blanche's nomination now heads to the full US Senate, where a confirmation vote could take place as early as this week.
About the Author
Sayantani Biswas is an assistant editor at Livemint with seven years of experience covering geopolitics, foreign policy, international relations and global power dynamics. She reports on Indian and international politics, including elections worldwide, and specialises in historically grounded analysis of contemporary conflicts and state decisions. She joined Mint in 2021, after covering politics at publications including The Telegraph. <br> She holds an MPhil in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University (2019), with a specialisation in postcolonial Latin American literature. Her research examined economic nationalism through Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. She also writes on political language, cultural memory and the long shadows of conflict. <br> Biswas grew up in Durgapur, an industrial town in West Bengal shaped by migration, which drew families from across India to the Durgapur Steel Plant. As the only child in a joint family, she spent years listening—almost obsessively—to her grandparents’ testimonies of struggle, fear and loss as they fled Bangladesh during the Partition of 1947. This formative exposure to lived historical memory later converged with her training in Comparative Literature, equipping her to analyse socio-economic structures and their reverberations. <br> Outside the newsroom, she gravitates towards cultural history and critical theory, returning often to texts such as Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour and fairness, and believes political reporting demands not only clarity and speed, but historical depth, contextual precision, and a disciplined resistance to spectacle.
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