Senator Scorned By Trump Threatens To Hold AG Nominee Hostage Over Weaponization Fund

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is holding up and threatening to derail Todd Blanche’s nomination as U.S. attorney general over a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which the Justice Department says it has no plans to pursue.

The Texas Republican, fresh off a bruising primary defeat, says Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote to advance Blanche’s nomination likely won’t happen without additional guarantees from the White House.

Punchbowl reported Wednesday that the DOJ sent Cornyn a written proposal in an effort to satisfy his demands. It did not work. 

“They know what they need to do, but they simply refuse to do it,” Cornyn told Punchbowl, announcing he called off his scheduled meeting with Blanche.

Ahead of that now-canceled meeting, Cornyn took to social media Tuesday to draw his line in the sand: “Fake news alert: there is no ‘deal’ on Blanche nom. They know what they have to do,” Cornyn posted.

Cornyn is working with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who also serves on the Judiciary Committee, to secure additional commitments that the Justice Department will amend its settlement with President Trump to explicitly rule out a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.

The controversy started in May, when Trump agreed to dismiss his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a formal apology and the creation of a new $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, The Daily Wire reported. The program would’ve compensated people who say federal authorities unfairly targeted them under the Biden administration. A separate provision of the agreement also barred the IRS from pursuing certain tax claims against Trump, his family, and their businesses.

Only a few weeks later, the Anti-Weaponization Fund was dead. Clinton-appointed Judge Leonie Brinkema issued a temporary restraining order May 29, blocking the Justice Department from taking further action on the fund. Justice Department officials complied, and after tense meetings with Senate Republicans, acting Attorney General Blanche testified: “We are not moving forward with the fund, period.” 

President Trump blasted Republicans who opposed the agreement. 

“Well, Congress didn’t want it,” President Trump told The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese from the Oval Office. “You have to talk to Congress. The Republican senators, some of them, got very weak knees. They didn’t have the stomach for the fight.”

The DOJ’s pledge to scrap the fund hasn’t satisfied Cornyn, who was supposed to meet with Blanche before Thursday’s committee vote. With all Democrats opposed, a single Republican vote against Blanche would effectively kill his nomination. 

“We need it in writing. We don’t need well-wishes or, you know, impressions,” he said, according to Politico. “We need concrete confirmation.”

Tillis has suggested to Politico that he is “pretty much following Cornyn’s cue.” 

Cornyn’s threat comes one week after he successfully threatened to block two of President Donald Trump’s ambassadorial nominees unless the administration released more than $1 billion in foreign aid funding for Africa. 

A White House official previously told The Daily Wire that the Trump administration has strengthened President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) by providing clearer strategic direction, encouraging greater recipient-country ownership, and sharpening the program’s focus on measurable health outcomes.

The Trump-Cornyn clashes come just weeks after Cornyn suffered a decisive defeat in the GOP primary to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, despite spending months courting Trump’s endorsement.

“The only way it seems like you can get the administration’s attention on some of these funding issues is by using the leverage to withhold votes on nominees,” Cornyn told Semafor. “We are going to use the committee vote tomorrow as a way to … get the money distributed the way Congress appropriated it.”