By Ernest Scheyder
Aug 1 (Reuters) – If the Senate does not confirm Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination, he will stay in his current acting role, President Donald Trump said on Saturday, adding that he would also push Congress to codify a proposed “anti-weaponization” fund that could help his allies.
Trump has said as recently as Friday that the $1.8 billion fund was dead.
Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have held up Blanche’s nomination while seeking written assurances that the Justice Department will not set up the fund, which Trump critics have derided as a slush fund to reward supporters with taxpayer money.
In a Saturday morning post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Blanche “one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country” and said that if Cornyn and Tillis won’t support the nomination, then he would “push hard to get the Anti-Weaponization Bill … PASSED.”
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE DUE TO VOTE ON TUESDAY
Tillis, whose term ends in January, wrote on Saturday that Blanche would not be confirmed because of Trump’s reversal, although he hoped that the matter could be resolved by Tuesday, when the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a nomination vote.
“Despite comments as late as yesterday that the fund is dead, President Trump clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans in the Senate would be against,” Tillis posted on X.
Cornyn’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite the standoff, Blanche may not need Senate confirmation to serve out Trump’s term. Acting officials can serve as long as their nomination is pending in the Senate and is not formally rejected or withdrawn.
Trump has previously said that he can resubmit Blanche’s nomination next year after Cornyn and Tillis have left office. Cornyn lost a primary election in May to Trump’s chosen candidate, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Tillis said last year that he would not seek re-election.
The “anti-weaponization” fund was crafted as part of a legal settlement between Trump and the Justice Department to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over allegedly mishandling his tax records, but it was put on hold amid opposition from some Republicans in Congress.
The fund could benefit Trump allies who have said they were unfairly targeted by the federal government for their involvement in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol after Trump lost his re-election bid in the 2020 election.
Cornyn and Tillis also object to an IRS deal that would prevent tax audits of Trump and his associates.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Sergio Non and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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