Overview
- The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 on Tuesday to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination after Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis agreed to support him following DOJ orders that rescinded the roughly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund and narrowed IRS audit protections.
- Blanche’s orders were single-page documents signed only by him and not by the parties to the IRS settlement, and legal experts and Democratic senators say that makes the changes legally weak and revivable by future DOJ action.
- Blanche has served as acting attorney general since April and previously worked as President Trump’s personal lawyer, a background that Democrats and survivors of Jeffrey Epstein criticized during confirmation hearings for suggesting loyalty to the president over traditional DOJ independence.
- The nomination now moves to the full Senate where Blanche can only afford a small number of Republican defections, making final confirmation uncertain and potentially dependent on whether leaders schedule a vote before the August recess.
- The dispute is likely to produce follow-up court fights and oversight battles because a federal judge already rebuked aspects of the settlement process, survivors remain dissatisfied with the handling of Epstein files, and the orders leave open paths for the fund or protections to be litigated or reinstated.