Todd Blanche has been the acting U.S. Attorney General since April 2, 2026 — but his path to the permanent job is collapsing in real time, and the person doing the most damage to his confirmation isn’t a Democrat. It’s Donald Trump. The Senate Judiciary Committee canceled a scheduled confirmation vote on July 30, blocked by two departing Republican senators who want the DOJ to put in writing that a controversial $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization fund’ is permanently dead. The problem: Blanche testified under oath that it is — and Trump publicly said he wishes it weren’t.
What the $1.8 Billion Fund Actually Is — and Why It Blew Up the Hearing
The anti-weaponization fund was created as part of a DOJ settlement of Trump‘s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the handling of his tax returns. The fund would have compensated people claiming government persecution — a category that, critics noted immediately, could extend to January 6 rioters. A federal judge temporarily blocked it in May 2026; the DOJ told courts in June 2026 it was not moving forward. But the administration refused to formalize that commitment in writing.
That refusal is what broke the committee. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — both leaving the Senate at the start of 2027 after losing influence in their own primaries — refused to advance the nomination unless the DOJ put it in writing: the fund is dead, full stop. Blanche testified under oath on July 15–16 that the fund is dead. Then, on August 1, Trump took to social media to say he ‘wishes it weren’t’ dead and threatened to push Congress to revive it through legislation if Blanche isn’t confirmed. A sitting president publicly undermining his own nominee’s sworn testimony, mid-confirmation, is not a normal political sequence — and it’s the core reason Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said on August 2 he ‘wouldn’t bet my house’ on a deal being reached. Much like the Republican fractures exposed during other Trump-era Cabinet battles, the resistance here isn’t coming from across the aisle.
Epstein Survivors, 16,000 Departed DOJ Employees, and a Bar Association Saying No
The weaponization fund isn’t the only thing stalling Blanche. Sen. Tillis required Blanche to meet with Jeffrey Epstein survivors before he would even consider a yes vote. That meeting happened in mid-July 2026. It did not go well. Several survivors described Blanche as ‘condescending’ and ‘evasive,’ and left the meeting more opposed than before. Epstein survivors have been lobbying senators directly, arguing that Blanche’s oversight of the DOJ’s handling and release of Epstein-related files disqualifies him from the top job.
The New York City Bar Association sent a formal letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 13, 2026, urging rejection of the nomination across five areas of concern: politically motivated prosecutions, violations of court orders, and what it called a misplaced loyalty to the president over the institution. The structural damage isn’t just procedural. Under Blanche’s leadership as Deputy and then Acting AG, more than 16,000 DOJ employees have left the department — including a quarter of its attorneys. There’s also a separate, unresolved dispute over an order Blanche issued barring the IRS from auditing the tax returns of Trump, his family, and his businesses as part of the May 2026 IRS settlement. Cornyn wants that limited in writing to past investigations only, not treated as blanket future immunity.
Trump’s Backup Plan: Wait Out the Senators Who Won’t Bow
Trump has floated a move that cuts the procedural knot entirely: temporarily withdraw Blanche’s nomination and resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office in January 2027, replacing them with senators more likely to confirm without conditions. It’s a plausible workaround — and a revealing one. The president isn’t engaging with the substance of the senators’ demands; he’s engineering around them. Trump has also accused both senators of opposing Blanche out of personal grievance, claiming they’re ‘upset because I wouldn’t endorse them.’ Cornyn did lose his Texas Republican primary to Trump-backed Ken Paxton, which adds a real layer of political score-settling to the standoff — but their written demands about the fund and the IRS audit provision are substantive and on the record regardless of motive. Blanche, meanwhile, is caught between two positions he cannot reconcile: his own sworn testimony and the public statements of the man who nominated him. That’s the bind the confirmation is stuck in, and as of August 2, 2026, there is no resolution in sight.
