$1.8B Slush Fund Killed — Why Now?

A torn hundred dollar bill featuring Benjamin Franklin — SLUSH FUND KILLED

A $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund just died so Todd Blanche’s path to running the Justice Department could live.

Story Snapshot

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general in a 12–10 party-line vote.
Republican holdouts John Cornyn and Thom Tillis cut a written deal to kill a controversial $1.8 billion fund.
Blanche’s reversal on the fund kept President Trump’s tax audit immunity deal largely intact but calmed GOP fears.
The fight shows how Republican senators are trying to check Trump-era “weaponization” politics without sinking his pick.

How Blanche’s nomination jumped its biggest early obstacle

The key thing that happened is simple but huge for Washington: the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee sent acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate after weeks of drama over President Trump’s Internal Revenue Service settlement and a giant “anti-weaponization” fund tied to it.

The vote was 12–10, straight along party lines, which means every Republican on the panel, including the skeptics, finally lined up behind Blanche.

Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General officially advances to the Senate floor following a 12-10 committee vote after key GOP holdouts backed the nominee! pic.twitter.com/GK2QwKlfUK

— MEAWW News (@meawwcom) August 5, 2026

This committee vote matters because it is the first real gate any attorney general nominee must pass. Before this, Blanche’s future was shaky.

Two Republicans on the committee, Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, had threatened to block him over the Justice Department’s plan to use $1.8 billion to pay people claiming they were victims of government “weaponization.” Without at least one of them, the nomination could have stalled in committee and never reached the full Senate.

The $1.8 billion fund that almost sank the nomination

The conflict centered on one unusual piece of Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service: a settlement that set up a huge fund for people who said the government had targeted them for political reasons.

Critics quickly warned that this “anti-weaponization” money could end up compensating Trump allies, including January 6 rioters, and function as a slush fund dressed up as justice reform. That framing is what set off Republicans who normally support Trump but still care about fiscal discipline and basic law-and-order optics.

After weeks of pressure, Blanche responded with a new order that rescinded the directive creating the fund and declared it dead. Cornyn later bragged that this deal “drove a stake through the heart” of the fund, signaling to conservatives that the worst part of the settlement was gone.

The same order also narrowed how the settlement’s tax audit protections would be read, trying to show that the deal was not a blanket free pass for Trump world, even as press reports say important audit immunity pieces still stand.

How skeptical Republicans were brought back on board

Senators Cornyn and Tillis did not simply accept a verbal promise; they demanded written assurances before they would allow Blanche’s nomination to move.

Reports say they received documents making clear that the $1.8 billion fund was rescinded and that audit protections would be limited to past returns for Trump, his two oldest sons, and the Trump Organization. Once they had that in hand, they voted yes in committee, flipping from potential blockers to key enablers of Blanche’s rise.

For a conservative, this looks like classic leverage at work. Two Republicans used their votes to force the Justice Department to kill what many saw as an open invitation to pay out taxpayer money to claimed “weaponization” victims, including possibly violent offenders.

They did not blow up Trump’s settlement or his choice for attorney general. Instead, they cut away the most politically explosive piece and left the rest standing, a move that respects both law-and-order instincts and the reality of Trump’s influence over the party.

Why Blanche still appeals to law-and-order conservatives

Even with the IRS and fund fight, Blanche is not some unknown figure. The Senate has already confirmed him once as deputy attorney general in a 52–46 vote, giving him charge over core Justice Department functions.

Senator Chuck Grassley opened Blanche’s latest hearing by reminding colleagues that they had judged him fit for high office before and by painting him as a tough, pro-victim, law-and-order official backed by hundreds of “Angel Families” who lost loved ones to crime.

President Trump also made his priorities clear. The White House urged the Senate to “confirm Todd Blanche without delay,” praising his loyalty and record inside the department.

For many conservatives, that combination matters: a nominee who cuts controversial deals when needed, reverses course under pressure, defends the administration’s agenda, and still secures concessions from leadership skeptics. You can disagree with Trump’s IRS settlement and still see value in a Justice Department head who responds to Republican oversight rather than stonewalls it.

The bigger pattern this fight reveals

This showdown fits a wider pattern in modern Washington: complex legal settlements tied to political allies often become proxy wars over trust in the system, not just the fine print of the deal. Republicans who worry about “weaponization” do not want the Justice Department turned into a cash machine or shield for friends.

At the same time, they know voters expect them to support a conservative president’s team unless there is a clear red line. Here, they treated the $1.8 billion fund as that red line and used Blanche’s nomination to erase it.

There are still open questions that future oversight can press. The underlying settlement documents are not public in full. Reports say Trump’s audit protections largely survive even after Blanche’s new order. That means watchdogs and senators can keep asking whether the IRS deal tilted too far toward immunity.

Yet the main story today is settled: Blanche gave up the fund, the holdouts got it in writing, and the committee moved his nomination ahead.