Blanche nomination uncertain as key GOP senator says DOJ ‘radio silent’ on demand to spike controversial fund

(CNN) — The fate of Todd Blanche’s nomination to be President Donald Trump’s attorney general is up in the air, with a key GOP senator indicating Tuesday he has not yet received the assurances he needs to vote in support.

Sen. John Cornyn said around midday Tuesday that he hadn’t received an update from the Justice Department on his and Sen. Thom Tillis’ demand that the “anti-weaponization” fund be formally killed before they vote in favor of advancing Blanche’s nomination.

Later, Cornyn told CNN he would meet with Blanche on Wednesday morning, and he expected the Justice Department to provide a written proposal on how it plans to kill the controversial fund once and for all.

“We need paper. We need it in writing. We don’t need well wishes or, you know, impressions,” Cornyn said.

Both Cornyn and Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote Thursday morning on whether to move forward on Blanche’s nomination. Without the backing of both lawmakers, the vote will fail.

“They’ve been kind of radio silent for the last 24 hours,” Cornyn said of the DOJ. “I think my staff is talking to them, but we’re not — they know what they need to do. They just don’t want to do it.”

Tillis, though, signaled optimism that the Trump administration would ultimately make an agreement with lawmakers, telling CNN’s Manu Raju that talks on the issue are “going pretty well.” He said he was unsure if he would go to the Wednesday meeting with Cornyn.

“Hopefully, we can get the White House to execute” on fully killing the fund, Tillis said.

“I think me and Cornyn are of the mind this has to be done,” he added.

Blanche has 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.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month, the acting attorney general insisted bluntly that “the weaponization fund is dead,” and said that the tax addendum — which is the only part of the agreement between Trump’s personal attorneys and the Justice Department that still stands — “binds only the IRS and by extension the Treasury” from investigating the president for potential crimes, not other agencies. The administration had also previously asserted in a court filing that it had abandoned the “anti-weaponization” fund.

But the two GOP senators have sought more assurances, including a written adjustment to the settlement agreement.

On Tuesday around midday, Cornyn raised the possibility of postponing the committee vote until the issue of the fund is sorted out. “That’s being discussed. That’s being discussed, but hopefully it won’t be necessary,” the Texas Republican said, though he noted that he hasn’t discussed the idea with Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley yet.

The $1.8 billion fund has been controversial from the start, upending other Senate priorities as critics said it amounted to a slush fund to allow the president to pay out his supporters with taxpayer money. And even while the administration sought to convince lawmakers it was dead, Trump had refused himself to do so, exacerbating tensions on Capitol Hill.

Last week, Cornyn had said that he didn’t expect Grassley to postpone the vote. However, as the vote gets closer, that may change.

If the votes aren’t there to confirm him, Cornyn said Thursday, “then Sen. Grassley might decide to postpone it. But that’s not — I don’t think that’s the number one goal right now.”

Asked later if he would vote against Blanche at the Thursday committee meeting if the weaponization fund issue wasn’t resolved to his satisfaction, Cornyn said: “Well, that means I doubt we have the vote.” Grassley ignored questions Tuesday about whether he would delay the Thursday vote.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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