Blanche nomination in peril as key GOP senator rails on DOJ over controversial fund

By Ellis Kim, Manu Raju, Hannah Rabinowitz, Alison Main, CNN

(CNN) — Todd Blanche’s nomination to be President Donald Trump’s attorney general is hanging in the balance with a key GOP senator saying the Justice Department has not done enough to assure him a controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund won’t move forward.

The pushback from Texas Sen. John Cornyn comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee has been planning to advance Blanche’s nomination on Thursday – but without Cornyn’s support, the vote will fail.

Cornyn said Wednesday that a planned meeting with Blanche to discuss his demands for DOJ to formally kill the fund had been canceled. The Texas Republican told CNN he still has not received the written commitment he has been demanding from Blanche and the Justice Department to formally kill the fund. As a result, he told reporters, he is not prepared to vote yes.

Asked by CNN if he would block the nomination if the hearing proceeds, Cornyn answered, “I’m not prepared to vote yes. Let me put it that way.”

With Cornyn and fellow Judiciary committee Republican Sen. Thom Tillis still unhappy that the DOJ hasn’t provided a written assurance to kill the fund, it’s unclear whether the committee will proceed with Thursday’s vote. Cornyn said the panel’s chair, Chuck Grassley, will determine around 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday whether to proceed with Thursday’s session.

“So, we still got a little time, and hopefully, they now recognize the seriousness of this, and will be responsive,” Cornyn said, referring to Blanche’s team.

A DOJ official told CNN the department, “provided a written proposal to Senator Cornyn’s staff yesterday following ongoing discussion with both the Committee and the Senator’s office. We look forward to further discussion around any outstanding concerns.”

However, Cornyn told reporters Wednesday that he hasn’t “seen a single piece of writing that is responsive to what I’ve requested.”

Blanche, at the Capitol Wednesday afternoon, did not respond to shouted questions from reporters, including whether he had provided a proposal to Cornyn to respond to the senator’s concerns and if he expects his committee vote to be delayed on Thursday.

Blanche has previously insisted that the “anti-weaponization” fund — a controversial pool of money set aside to award people who claim to have been wronged by the Justice Department, including possibly January 6, 2021, rioters — is no longer happening. The administration had also previously asserted in a court filing that it had abandoned the “anti-weaponization” fund.

When asked if the committee will still vote on Thursday, Grassley said, “You’ll have to ask Tillis and Cornyn about that.”

Some in the Justice Department were surprised by Cornyn’s social media post Tuesday, which made clear he was still not prepared to vote in favor of Blanche. He posted to X that “there is no ‘deal’ on Blanche nom. They know what they have to do.”

The acting attorney general’s office had been confident that Blanche’s nomination would pass the committee vote. Sources within the Justice Department said there was still some confusion about what exactly would satisfy Cornyn’s push against the “anti-weaponization” fund.

Tillis insisted that the Justice Department should be able to come to an agreement with himself and Cornyn on the fund ahead of the scheduled committee vote on the nomination Thursday morning.

“My office has been in touch with Blanche’s staff over the last hour. So, we’re trying to work just to get the — I really do believe it’s just a drafting exercise. I don’t believe that we’re apart in terms of the objective. And so with that, hopefully we can we can get it done,” he told CNN.

He did acknowledge that if they cannot get there, “it could affect the markup” on Thursday.

Tillis has consistently been more optimistic that he and Cornyn can bridge the gap with DOJ. And Tillis argued the 4 p.m. deadline should not be seen as an ultimatum. “I think that’s probably for planning purposes, for the markup tomorrow. It’s not like that Senator Cornyn’s walking away from it. He’s just being realistic about planning for a markup.”

Pressed on why it has taken the DOJ so much time to find a solution to their concerns if Tillis really believes they have the same goals, the North Carolina Republican replied, “Keep in mind that everything that we’re talking about trying to reduce to writing were things that, under oath, Blanche was okay with. So, I don’t think there’s a game being played here. I think that Blanche genuinely wants to get it done because he recognizes it as the distraction that it is.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Morgan Rimmer and Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.