{"id":21890,"date":"2026-07-30T09:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T04:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21890"},"modified":"2026-07-30T09:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T04:48:07","slug":"blanche-nomination-hangs-by-a-thread-as-cornyn-stands-by-settlement-ultimatum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21890","title":{"rendered":"Blanche nomination hangs by a thread as Cornyn stands by settlement ultimatum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/a0\/8e\/c4fc46e24707b8335fa8a9c4e88d\/u-s-congress-27525.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>GOP Sen. John Cornyn said Wednesday, less than 24 hours before a critical committee vote, that he is \u201cnot prepared\u201d to support Todd Blanche\u2019s confirmation as attorney general as the two continue to tangle over the fate of a controversial DOJ-brokered settlement agreement involving President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Blanche did not appear for a planned morning meeting in Cornyn\u2019s office, and the senator told reporters that time was running out for Blanche to meet his demand to formally modify the settlement Trump reached with the IRS earlier this year \u2014 a key ultimatum the Texas Republican set out after Blanche\u2019s confirmation hearing earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully they now recognize the seriousness of this,\u201d said Cornyn, who recently lost his bid for renomination to a fifth term to a Trump-backed challenger. \u201cMaybe they think I&#8217;m just going to give up or, you know, go along, but they&#8217;re mistaken.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A DOJ official said the department shared a \u201cwritten proposal\u201d with Cornyn\u2019s staff Tuesday. \u201cWe look forward to further discussion around any outstanding concerns,\u201d said the person, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Cornyn said Wednesday that he has yet to see \u201ca single piece of writing that is responsive to what I&#8217;ve requested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His comments came ahead of a scheduled Thursday vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he has been seen as the pivotal vote. Opposition from any one Republican could sink Blanche\u2019s chances of confirmation, and another potential GOP swing vote, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said this week he would follow Cornyn\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n<p>Cornyn said Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had told him he needed to know by 4 p.m. Wednesday if the vote could go forward, putting the Trump administration on a tight timeline if it wants Blanche confirmed before the Senate starts its summer recess next week.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Grassley declined to comment on Cornyn\u2019s deadline claim.<\/p>\n<p>The modification Cornyn is seeking would enshrine Blanche\u2019s oral pledge during his confirmation hearing earlier this month that a proposed \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund is defunct and that an IRS audit immunity agreement for Trump, his family and business is pared back.<\/p>\n<p>Cornyn and Tillis both expressed concern about the $1.8 billion fund, which was viewed as a way to direct taxpayer money to those convicted of assaulting police officers and other offenses associated with the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, by Trump supporters.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GOP Sen. John Cornyn said Wednesday, less than 24 hours before a critical committee vote, that he is \u201cnot prepared\u201d to support Todd Blanche\u2019s confirmation as attorney general as the two continue to tangle over the fate of a controversial DOJ-brokered settlement agreement involving President Donald Trump. Blanche did not appear for a planned morning&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/a0\/8e\/c4fc46e24707b8335fa8a9c4e88d\/u-s-congress-27525.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}