The panel is expected to send Todd Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate after he killed the president’s payout fund in writing.
Read more Can big money backfire?
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Tuesday to advance Todd Blanche’s bid to become the next attorney general, a day after two Republican holdouts said they were now willing to back the president’s nominee.
For days, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina had held up Blanche’s nomination, citing concerns over the controversial legal settlement the Justice Department brokered this spring between President Donald Trump and the IRS. A “no” vote from either senator would have been enough to kill Blanche’s nomination in committee.
But Cornyn and Tillis announced Monday that they had reached an agreement with Blanche and that they were now prepared to support him in the committee vote scheduled to take place during a 9 a.m. hearing.
The agreement marked a détente following a rare standoff that saw two prominent GOP lawmakers buck a president unaccustomed to defiance from members of his own party.
Should Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, garner the support he needs Tuesday, the Senate’s Republican leadership has said it hopes to put his nomination up for a confirmation vote in the full Senate before the chamber leaves for its August recess this weekend.
As part of his agreement with Cornyn and Tillis, Blanche late Sunday issued an order rescinding in writing plans to implement a key provision of Trump’s deal, which resolved his lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns: Its proposed nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claim they have been victims of politicized prosecutions.
Read more Trump’s National Guard deployment in D.C. set to cost additional $1.4 billion
The acting attorney general also clarified another aspect of that deal, one that shields Trump, his sons and their businesses from past tax claims. Blanche said Sunday those protections apply “only retroactively” and would not bar the IRS from auditing the Trumps moving forward.
Blanche’s directives enshrined in writing the verbal assurances he had been giving for months that the fund was off the table. And while his statements Sunday did not alter the underlying legal agreement between Trump and the IRS that had called for the fund’s creation, they appeared to satisfy concerns of Cornyn and Tillis.
Still, Trump further muddied the waters in recent days by repeatedly pledging support for the idea of the payout fund, even as Blanche was scrambling to convince lawmakers that there was no intent to proceed with it.
“I thought it would be very fair for people that spent years in prison, people that were treated so badly [and] in many cases, people that did absolutely nothing wrong,” the president told reporters Monday. “So I view that fund as a positive, and a lot of Republicans do, too.”
He added he had not seen the order Blanche issued Sunday.
“All I know is that Todd Blanche is great,” Trump said. “He’s going to do a great job. Everybody knows it. I understand there’s been a sign-off, but I don’t know what they agreed. I think Todd Blanche agreed to reconfirm things he already said.”
Read more Trump keeps making threats. Washington and the world have stopped flinching.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
