{"id":7403,"date":"2026-07-16T07:17:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7403"},"modified":"2026-07-16T07:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:17:27","slug":"cornyn-says-hes-undecided-on-blanche-after-acting-ags-response-to-questions-about-slush-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7403","title":{"rendered":"Cornyn Says He\u2019s Undecided on Blanche After Acting AG\u2019s Response to Questions About Slush Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<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\r\n<br><div id=\"article-content\">\n            \n\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) indicated to CNN Wednesday that he was undecided on voting to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to that position permanently due to Blanche\u2019s response to his questions about President Donald Trump\u2019s corrupt slush fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>On the first day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats and a few Republicans questioned Blanche on the so-called $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund that came out of Trump\u2019s settlement with his own Internal Revenue Services (IRS).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Blanche, as he has told Congress before, repeatedly said that the slush fund is \u201cdead\u201d and that it is \u201cnot moving forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was one of the few Republicans who pushed back on Blanche\u2019s insistence that the slush fund is dead.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cI would refer you to the settlement agreement,\u201d Cornyn said. Reading from the settlement out loud, Cornyn continued: \u201cOn page four \u2014 this settlement agreement may be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties. Has there been a written agreement of the parties to modify the settlement fund?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cNo, the settlement fund is not moving forward. There is no modification. It never started \u2026 It\u2019s not moving forward,\u201d Blanche said.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Cornyn then pushed back, asking Blanche if the settlement agreement is enforceable as a contract. That led Blanche to confirm that Trump\u2019s counsel could, in fact, seek to enforce the agreement.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cThey can\u2019t force the Department of Justice to move forward with the weaponization fund. They could potentially say that, I suppose, that we breached by not moving forward,\u201d Blanche said, adding, \u201cThey haven\u2019t done that and I\u2019m not aware that they\u2019re planning on doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Blanche also added that he thinks Congress could codify that the fund is defunct into law to guarantee that \u201cthere is no weaponization fund.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cBut just to be clear, the President of the United States, who is the plaintiff in this lawsuit, has not agreed in writing to delete the weaponization fund. And there is no guarantee that he or one of the other plaintiffs might raise that issue by way of a lawsuit \u2014 a breach of contract lawsuit in the future,\u201d Cornyn pushed back again.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Blanche avoided answering that question directly but did admit that \u201cthey could bring a lawsuit and then we would litigate it.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Following his questioning, Cornyn told CNN that he is undecided on how he will vote for the Blanche nomination.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cWell he basically confirmed that it\u2019s not dead,\u201d Cornyn told CNN\u2019S Manu Raju when asked if he was satisfied with Blanche\u2019s answers on the fund. \u201cThat it cannot be changed without written consent of the parties, according to the settlement agreement, there is no written consent of the parties and he agreed that it could be enforced as a matter of contract.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>When asked if that concerned him Cornyn said, \u201cYeah.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cI continue to have some concerns, but I\u2019m not going to make any decisions at this point,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m gonna wait until we actually vote on the confirmation in a week or so,\u201d he continued, suggesting he may vote to advance Blanche\u2019s nomination out of committee.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Cornyn is one of two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who has suggested that Blanche\u2019s role in the creation of a slush fund to compensate Trump\u2019s political supporters and allies gave him pause about voting to confirm him as attorney general. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has expressed issues with the fund as well, but did not appear to hold Blanche accountable for it during his questioning on Wednesday, beyond suggesting that lawmakers should pass legislation that would officially \u201cstick a fork in this turkey of a 1776 fund.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->          <\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n        appId: \"101800829865996\",\n        xfbml: true,\n        version: ' v2.6'\n      });\n      window.fbAsyncInit.__didInit = true;\n    };\n    (function(d, s, id) {\n      var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n      if (d.getElementById(id)) {\n        return;\n      }\n      js = d.createElement(s);\n      js.id = id;\n      js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n      fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n  <\/script>\r\n<br><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) indicated to CNN Wednesday that he was undecided on voting to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to that position permanently due to Blanche\u2019s response to his questions about President Donald Trump\u2019s corrupt slush fund. On the first day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats and a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2286244387.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7403","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\/7403","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=7403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}