Key GOP Senator Says He’s On the Fence for Trump’s AG Nominee After Tense Exchange at Hearing

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday he was on the fence about voting to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Todd Blanche.

Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, raised eyebrows during his confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee by referring to himself as Trump’s lawyer, as opposed to the acting attorney general of the U.S. Cornyn grilled Blanche in a tense exchange during his questioning time on whether or not Trump’s highly controversial near $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” is truly dead.

Cornyn was not reassured by Blanche’s answers on the topic. Raju reported:

John Cornyn, a key GOP vote on Judiciary, just told me he’s truly undecided on whether he’ll vote for Todd Blanche. Says he’s concerned that the $1.8B weaponization fund isn’t dead.

“What he confirmed is it’s not” dead.

Blanche will likely need every Republican vote on the panel for his nomination to advance. Following the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the panel is currently split between 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told Raju on Tuesday that he too was skeptical of Blanche over the fund, which was created via a settlement Blanche’s Justice Department came to with the IRS.

“The 1776 fund has to be certainly and completely ended for me to feel comfortable with moving forward,” Tillis told Raju, adding:

I referred to it as stupid on stilts. Now it even looks like judges agree with me.

Tillis later told Raju on Wednesday he was leaning toward voting for Blanche. Raju reported, “Sen. Thom Tillis, key GOP swing vote, tells us he is ‘leaning yes’ on Todd Blanche, but wants more to codify that the $1.8B anti-weaponization fund is truly dead. Wants legislation that Trump endorses.”

On Monday, a federal judge nullified the settlement reached between the DOJ and IRS, which created the fund. Trump had sued the IRS after some media outlets obtained his tax transcripts, resulting in the unprecedented settlement.

Federal Judge Kathleen M. Williams shot down the settlement, writing, “This action was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute. The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the Parties and counsel from its filing make plain that this was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law.”

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