Key committee vote for Todd Blanche postponed in major blow to his nomination as Trump’s attorney general

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

(CNN) — Senate GOP leaders were forced to postpone a vote to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination to be President Donald Trump’s attorney general late Wednesday, with a key GOP senator refusing to yield in a weeks-long battle with the administration over its controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.

The delay of that critical Judiciary Committee vote throws the nomination into serious jeopardy, with just days left before the Senate is set to break for its lengthy August recess. If the White House can’t reach a deal with the holdout senator – Sen. John Cornyn of Texas – a vote could stall indefinitely or be pushed back until the fall at the earliest.

It’s still not yet clear how far Cornyn – along with GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, who has raised similar concerns – are willing to go to dig in against Blanche and Trump. But it’s an increasing political crisis for the president, who has dwindling days before a pivotal midterm election and is dealing with a GOP-led Congress unable to achieve his many demands.

In a statement, a Judiciary Committee spokesperson acknowledged that Blanche’s nomination lacked the votes to succeed and said Chairman Chuck Grassley “works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure.”

“Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement. Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report Attorney General-nominee Todd Blanche, who is highly qualified for the job,” the spokesperson said.

A Justice Department spokesperson said Wednesday following the postponement, “The Department has been in regular communication with Committee members for weeks, and we look forward to continuing to work productively with Senators to address any concerns.”

Cornyn and GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said late Wednesday afternoon they still had not reached a deal with the Justice Department resolving their concerns about its handling of the fund and potential IRS audits of President Trump’s family and organization.

“We are working on getting a solution,” Grassley repeatedly told reporters on Wednesday before he postponed the vote.

Tillis told reporters earlier that they needed an agreement tonight. If they didn’t get it, he said he would not vote against Blanche in committee. Instead, he said he would deny quorum. If the panel didn’t have a quorum — or enough members to proceed — then it would not be able to hold the vote.

Cornyn announced earlier in the day 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 had 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.

“Maybe they think they can roll me,” Cornyn told CNN. Asked if they could, Cornyn replied emphatically: “No.”

“We actually sent them a red line strikeout of what we need, and they just need to make a decision, and if they do, then we’ll proceed with the markup tomorrow,” he said. “We’re trying to make it easy for them. They won’t take the help.”

A DOJ official told CNN the department, “provided a written proposal to Senator Cornyn’s staff [Tuesday] following ongoing discussion with both the Committee and the Senator’s office. We look forward to further discussion around any outstanding concerns.” Another person familiar with the situation told CNN the department provided an updated proposal to the senators on Wednesday, before Grassley postponed the committee vote.

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

A spokesperson for Cornyn said the Texas Republican sent the DOJ a counterproposal Wednesday night to resolve his concerns.

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.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune encouraged the Trump administration to find a “resolution” with Cornyn and Tillis so the nomination can move forward.

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.

In May, CNN reported that the IRS can’t bring claims against Trump, his family or businesses for past tax issues, according to additional terms added to the settlement the DOJ reached with Trump to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.

Blanche has previously said that the tax addendum — which is the only part of the agreement between Trump’s personal attorneys and the Justice Department still stands — “binds only the IRS and by extension the Treasury” from investigating the president for potential crimes, not other agencies.

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 earlier that he believed 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.

“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.

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.”

Survivors of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were on Capitol Hill on Wednesday urging lawmakers, including Cornyn and Tillis, to vote against Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department.

“It’s not political. Just do the right thing. Be on the right side of history here,” one survivor, Dani Bensky, told reporters on Wednesday when asked for her message to the two Republicans who could potentially stop Blanche’s nomination in its tracks.

The group met with some of Cornyn’s staff and called the meeting “very pleasant” and “productive.” They said they happened to run into Tillis, who earlier this month demanded Blanche meet with survivors, and he had said he would love to arrange a meeting with them.

Bensky said she found Blanche to be “very condescending” when they met with him earlier in the month, adding, “We walked away with absolutely no answers, and it felt like a very no-win situation.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Olivia Barrett, Kaitlan Collins, Morgan Rimmer, Sarah Ferris and Victoria Ryan contributed to this report.