Todd Blanche’s bid to become attorney general is still running into the same problem that dogged his hearing last week: the $1.766 billion fund he helped create is not staying buried. In written answers released Monday night, Blanche said the anti-weaponization fund is dead, but he stopped short of saying it could never come back.
That matters now because Blanche needs to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee before his nomination can reach the floor, and the committee’s 11-10 Republican margin leaves him little room to spare if Democrats vote no. The search over his confirmation is not about ideology alone. It is about whether Republicans on the panel decide the fund episode is disqualifying enough to break ranks.
Thom Tillis pressed the point directly. He asked Blanche, “If the President directs you to reverse your decision and move forward with the Fund, will you move forward?” Blanche replied that “it would be inappropriate for me to comment on hypothetical communications I may or may not have with the President,” then added that “The Anti-Weaponization Fund is dead.”
That answer left the central problem intact. A direct declaration that the fund would stay dead would have closed the door. Instead, Blanche answered the present tense and dodged the future tense, which is exactly where the worry sits. If a nominee says the fund is finished but will not rule out reviving it under pressure from Donald Trump, senators can read that as a hedge, not a promise.
The fund itself is what turned a routine confirmation into a test of Blanche’s judgment. A Republican senator raised serious questions at the hearing about his role in creating the $1.8 billion arrangement for purported victims of Justice Department persecution, and members of both parties quickly condemned it as a slush fund that would benefit the White House’s political allies. Blanche later refused to declare in writing that the payout fund was dead and would not be resurrected.
John Cornyn and Tillis have both raised concerns, and both are retiring at the end of the year, which gives them more freedom to push than most senators usually have. That is part of why the fund issue keeps surfacing: it is not just about one controversial deal, but about whether Republicans on the panel will accept Blanche’s explanation or decide that the unanswered hypothetical is reason enough to withhold support.
The sequence that led here is straightforward. Earlier this year, Blanche agreed to a settlement that produced tax audit immunity for Trump and his family and a potential $1.766 billion payout fund controlled by the administration. Last week, his hearing turned contentious. Monday night, the written responses landed. By Wednesday, the nomination was still described as uncertain.
So the next step is not a mystery. The committee vote is the gate, and Blanche still has to walk through it with every Republican in line behind him if Democrats stay opposed. His written answer bought him no certainty, only a clearer measure of what he still needs to prove: that the fund is not just dead in writing, but dead enough for the senators who have the power to stop him.
