The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled confirmation hearings for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in mid-July, the committee’s calendar shows, as President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department faces a skeptical bloc of Republican senators demanding further assurances about a $1.776 billion settlement fund.
Blanche, Trump’s nominee to serve as the permanent attorney general after weeks of debate over the fund’s future, told GOP senators in a contentious meeting that the fund would not go forward. But some Republican lawmakers said they want more definitive commitments from Blanche before they vote to confirm him as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.
“It’ll be an issue if the weaponization fund isn’t effectively dead by the confirmation hearing,” said GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, a potential swing vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Because I still have a real problem with it being out there.”
Tillis’s statement reflects the core reservation among a group of Republican senators who remain publicly undecided about Blanche’s confirmation. The fund — which Blanche has said will not proceed — was created by the Trump administration as a vehicle to compensate allies who claim they were politically targeted. Several Republican senators questioned Blanche about the arrangement during a closed-door meeting before his nomination was announced.
Blanche has maintained that the $1.776 billion fund will not be implemented as originally designed, a position that has satisfied some GOP senators but not all. Tillis’s comment, reported by the Associated Press, clarifies the threshold that the nominee will face when the Judiciary Committee takes up his nomination in July.
The confirmation hearings are expected to focus on Blanche’s handling of the fund, his approach to the Justice Department’s investigative priorities, and his oversight of the department’s enforcement machinery.