Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley pushed back the committee vote on Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination from Thursday to Tuesday, buying the White House more time to win over two Republican senators whose objections have stalled the confirmation.
Grassley made the move late Friday after it became clear that Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina were not yet ready to support Blanche. Both Republicans sit on the Judiciary Committee, where Blanche cannot afford to lose a single GOP vote if he wants the panel to send his nomination to the full Senate. The rescheduling amounted to a preemptive concession: better to delay than to lose on the committee floor.
A Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named, framed the delay as strategic rather than panicked.
"Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche's nomination to be successful. Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President's nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe."
Committee rules require three days' notice before a panel meeting, which means the Tuesday target is the earliest Grassley could schedule after pulling Thursday's session. The clock is tight: Congress faces an August recess deadline, and every day of delay compresses the window for a floor vote even if the committee clears Blanche next week.
Cornyn's objections are specific and financial. He wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion fund known as the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" and to limit the scope of a tax audit immunity provision tied to a settlement agreement between President Trump and the Internal Revenue Service. Tillis has raised similar concerns, though the precise details of his demands have not been made public.
The Anti-Weaponization Fund has been a flashpoint for months. Senate Republicans earlier this summer halted an ICE funding push to force the Trump administration to formally end the fund, and the dispute has spilled into confirmation fights that have nothing to do with immigration enforcement.
Trump himself addressed the fund Friday when reporters pressed him on the holdouts. He said the fund is "dead", but then added, "I wish it weren't." He also said, "I'd like to see them compensated," referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
That mixed message does not make Cornyn's job easier. Trump declared the fund finished while simultaneously expressing regret that it was. For a senator demanding formal action from the DOJ, not just a verbal assurance from the president, that kind of ambiguity is precisely the problem.
Cornyn's willingness to hold up a Trump nominee carries extra weight given his own political history. He lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, a defeat that might have made another senator more cautious about crossing the administration. Instead, Cornyn appears to be using his remaining leverage on the Judiciary Committee to extract policy concessions before he leaves.
That dynamic puts the White House in an awkward position. Two Republican senators stalling a Republican president's attorney general pick is not the kind of intra-party fight the administration wants heading into August, when legislative momentum dies and media narratives harden.
Blanche's confirmation path runs through a committee where the GOP margin leaves zero room for defections. If Cornyn and Tillis both vote no, the nomination stalls at the committee level and never reaches the Senate floor. Grassley's decision to reschedule rather than force a vote signals that the chairman does not yet have the commitments he needs.
The settlement between Trump and the IRS has drawn fire from multiple directions. A federal judge voided the agreement and referred Trump's attorney to the Florida Bar, adding legal uncertainty to a deal that was already politically toxic on Capitol Hill. Cornyn's demand that the DOJ nullify the Anti-Weaponization Fund and narrow the tax audit immunity provision tracks with broader Republican frustration over the settlement's terms and the administration's handling of the fallout.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee's top Democrat, has also weighed in on the fund. Durbin claimed that Blanche himself called the fund "a mistake" in a private meeting, a characterization that, if accurate, suggests even the nominee recognizes the political liability the fund represents.
None of that has been enough to satisfy Cornyn and Tillis. Verbal concessions and private acknowledgments fall short of the formal DOJ action both senators appear to want before they cast a yes vote.
Grassley's stated goal is to get Blanche confirmed before the August recess. The Senate has been racing to process Trump nominees in recent weeks, but the Blanche confirmation has become the most visible bottleneck. If the committee cannot advance the nomination Tuesday, the timeline for a pre-recess floor vote collapses.
The spokesperson's statement made clear that Grassley views Blanche as the right pick. But wanting a nomination to succeed and having the votes to make it happen are two different things. The chairman chose delay over defeat, a prudent call, but one that shifts the pressure squarely onto the White House to deliver Cornyn and Tillis by Tuesday.
Several questions remain unanswered. Has Trump directed the DOJ to take any formal action on the Anti-Weaponization Fund beyond his verbal declaration that it is "dead"? What specific concessions, if any, has the White House offered Cornyn and Tillis in private negotiations? And are there additional Republican senators on the committee who might waver if the holdouts are not satisfied?
The administration has three days to turn two nos into yeses. If it cannot, a Republican president will have lost his attorney general nominee in a Republican-controlled committee, not because Democrats blocked him, but because members of his own party refused to look the other way.