Trump’s pick for US attorney general Todd Blanche in jeopardy as vote postponed

Todd Blanche’s hopes of becoming US attorney general seemed to be in jeopardy on Wednesday after the Department of Justice did not provide written assurances to a key Republican senator that a $1.8bn slush fund was dead.

The US Senate judiciary committee postponed a vote scheduled for Thursday on whether to advance Blanche’s nomination.

“Chairman [Chuck] Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure. Senators [John] Cornyn and [Thom] Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement,” a committee spokesperson said in a Wednesday statement. “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.”

Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, is already serving as acting US attorney general. He needs the vote of every Republican on the Senate judiciary panel to advance his nomination to land the role on a permanent basis.

But a swing vote on the committee, John Cornyn of Texas, told reporters on Wednesday he would not support Blanche’s nomination until he received written confirmation that the fund was not moving ahead.

Cornyn also wants to clarify that a provision giving the president, his sons and related businesses blanket immunity from tax audits for all matters up until this year could not be applied to future matters, or to people who were not parties to the settlement.

“Maybe they think I’m just going to give up or, you know, go along, but they’re mistaken,” said Cornyn, a four-term Republican senator who lost a re-election bid earlier this year to a Trump-endorsed rival. “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.”

The US federal government reached the agreement to resolve a $10bn lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS over the unauthorized leak of his tax returns. The deal created a $1.8bn loosely controlled fund to compensate people who say they are victims of government weaponization and gave Trump, his family and businesses blanket immunity from audits for anything filed until the agreement was reached.

The agreement immediately faced bipartisan scrutiny and outrage. The justice department did not make any effort to defend itself from the lawsuit, prompting a federal judge overseeing the case to conclude the case was brought with an “improper purpose”.

Under pressure, Blanche announced in June that the department was scrapping the “anti-weaponization” fund, but has repeatedly declined to say so in writing. Pressed by Cornyn during his confirmation hearing, Blanche acknowledged that Trump or the other plaintiffs in the case could try to enforce the settlement agreement. He also did not say the tax immunity provision was dead.