{"id":298,"date":"2026-07-15T17:38:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=298"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:38:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:38:38","slug":"republican-senators-grill-acting-ag-blanche-on-trumps-1-8-million-anti-weaponization-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=298","title":{"rendered":"Republican Senators Grill Acting AG Blanche on Trump\u2019s $1.8 Million \u2018Anti-Weaponization Fund\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican senators joined their Democratic colleagues in grilling Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on President Trump\u2019s $1.8 million anti-weaponization fund during a confirmation hearing on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The settlement fund was born out of a $10 million lawsuit brought against the Internal Revenue Service by Trump\u2019s personal attorneys over the leak of his tax returns. Shortly after the settlement was reached, <\/span>Blanche also signed an order that would give the president and his family immunity from IRS investigations into all of their past tax returns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Blanche, who has been acting as interim attorney general since Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi in April, told senators the anti-weaponization fund is \u201cdead,\u201d but acknowledged that the underlying settlement agreement is still an \u201cenforceable document.\u201d The Department of Justice has not committed to dropping the fund in writing, and has also not <\/span>rescinded Blanche\u2019s immunity order.<\/span><\/p>\n

The $1.8 million agreement, referred to as a \u201cslush fund\u201d by senators from both parties who fear the money will be doled out to Trump\u2019s political allies and rioters who were arrested for charging the Capitol in 2021, is a key sticking point for two lame duck Republican senators \u2014 John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina \u2014 who have said they\u2019ll need guarantees the administration is not moving forward with the fund before they can support Blanche\u2019s nomination for attorney general.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blanche will likely need the support of every Republican on the committee for his nomination to advance to a full Senate vote.<\/p>\n

Cornyn arrived at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday with a poster displaying Trump\u2019s settlement agreement with the IRS. The senator cited a portion of the agreement that notes it \u201cmay be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Blanche said there had not been a written agreement to modify the settlement fund, but sought to assure the committee that the fund is \u201cnot moving forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, he said the settlement agreement is an\u00a0\u201cenforceable document,\u201d meaning that Trump\u2019s lawyers could\u00a0<\/span>seek to enforce the contract by a breach of contract lawsuit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t force the Department of Justice to move forward with the weaponization fund,\u201d Blanche said. \u201cThey could potentially say that, I suppose, that we breached by not moving forward.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

However, \u201cthey haven\u2019t done that and I\u2019m not aware that they\u2019re planning on doing that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also defended his immunity order during the confirmation hearing, saying the document is\u00a0\u201cnot an exemption to comply with the tax laws of the United States,\u201d but \u201can agreement that any past audits would end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cornyn did not seem satisfied with Blanche\u2019s responses during the hearing, telling\u00a0The Dispatch, <\/em>\u201cHe answered my questions, but basically what they confirmed is the weaponization fund is not dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m sure he disagrees with me, but he admitted that the settlement agreement said it couldn\u2019t be changed without written consent of the parties, and that doesn\u2019t exist, and that the weaponization fund could be enforced by a lawsuit for breach of contract.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear to me that in the future it could be revived,\u201d Cornyn said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The confirmation hearing comes just two days after the federal judge overseeing Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the IRS sanctioned the president\u2019s attorneys and suggested that Blanche should also be disciplined after finding that the lawsuit amounted to collusion because the two parties were never truly at odds. Trump and the DOJ reached the agreement in May after the president sued his own administration in January over the leak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn sum, the facts before this Court demonstrate there was never adverseness between the Parties; there was never a case or controversy; and there was never a question as to who would prevail,\u201d Williams wrote in a 56-page filing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court determines that Plaintiffs improperly employed this lawsuit to justify a particular award in this matter\u2014access to taxpayer funds and exemption from audits and other investigations\u2014which was accomplished by leveraging control over Defendants,\u201d she wrote, suggesting the\u00a0suit was \u201cbrought to manipulate the judicial process.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of the ruling, Tillis said\u00a0the fund needs to be \u201ccertainly and completely ended\u201d before he can support Blanche.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say \u2014 I have to know with certainty that that fund \u2026 it\u2019s just got to be ended,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s bad optics. It\u2019s bad policy \u2026 It\u2019s got to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the hearing on Wednesday, Tillis said he wants to \u201cstick a fork in\u201d the anti-weaponization fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a problem,\u201d he told Blanche of the fund. \u201cIt should never be paid out. You\u2019ve said that it\u2019s moot. Others, these smart attorneys that I\u2019m surrounded by, think that the courts are probably going to deal with it. But why should we waste the court capacity on this issue if I could walk to the Senate floor with an agreed to piece of text coming from the administration that just renders this whole thing dead, gone?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is that a bad strategy?\u201d Tillis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not,\u201d Blanche replied, adding the administration does not object to that path.<\/p>\n

While Tillis seemed like an unclear vote on Blanche going into the hearing, his comments during the proceedings appeared to signal his support for the acting AG: \u201cYou did a great job today,\u201d he told Blanche.<\/p>\n

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Cornyn and Tillis said they’ll need guarantees the administration is not moving forward with the fund before they can support Blanche’s nomination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nRepublican Senators Grill Acting AG Blanche on Trump\u2019s $1.8 Million \u2018Anti-Weaponization Fund\u2019 - American Housing Transition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=298\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republican Senators Grill Acting AG Blanche on Trump\u2019s $1.8 Million \u2018Anti-Weaponization Fund\u2019 - 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