A Senate standoff over the future of the Justice Department is over.
Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis said Monday they will vote to advance acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination to permanently lead the Justice Department, ending their resistance after Blanche formally killed a controversial $1.8 billion fund designed to compensate people who believe they were unfairly targeted by federal prosecutors.
The breakthrough came after Blanche issued an order late Sunday rescinding the so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” giving the two Republican holdouts the written confirmation they had demanded.
Cornyn and Tillis had made clear that they would not support Blanche's nomination without assurances that the fund was finished.
Now they are backing him.
“We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon,” the senators said in a joint statement.
Their votes matter. Blanche needs their support to move forward through the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was scheduled to consider his nomination Tuesday.
The dispute was ultimately resolved not through another round of political promises, but through an actual Justice Department order putting the fund to rest.
That distinction matters.
The controversy centered on plans for the $1.8 billion fund, which was intended to compensate individuals who contend that the Justice Department had been weaponized against them. For Cornyn and Tillis, the solution was straightforward: If the fund was going away, they wanted it in writing.
Blanche provided exactly that.
The agreement clears an obstacle for President Donald Trump's choice to lead the Justice Department and removes what had become an increasingly awkward Republican-on-Republican fight.
Cornyn and Tillis, both of whom are not returning to the Senate next year, had put their objections on the record. Rather than simply falling in line, they demanded a concrete commitment from the nominee—and received one.
For the Trump administration, the episode ends with Blanche moving forward and the disputed compensation program officially rescinded.
That is a significant development for an administration that has made confronting alleged abuses and politicization inside federal institutions a central part of its America First agenda.
The message from the Senate holdouts was equally clear: Promises were not enough. They wanted action.
Now they have it—and Blanche's nomination is moving ahead.
