President Trump said Thursday that he might pull Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general, after two Republican senators threatened to withhold their support.
“I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
His comments came after the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote Thursday that would have advanced Blanche’s nomination.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, one of the key holdout votes, told reporters Wednesday that he had not received a written confirmation from the Department of Justice that it would eliminate provisions in a proposed settlement between Trump and the department over a lawsuit he filed concerning the leak of his tax returns.
The most contentious provisions would have created a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” for Trump allies and Jan. 6 defendants, and shielded Trump and his family from future audits by the Internal Revenue Service.
“I think they [the administration] realizes that we are serious,” Cornyn, who lost his reelection bid in May after Trump endorsed his opponent, said after canceling an in-person meeting with Blanche.
The committee did not immediately announce a new date for a confirmation vote. Shortly after the postponement, Cornyn said negotiations between the committee members and the DOJ were still ongoing, and that the DOJ had received “some pushbacks” from the White House.
“I thought we were pretty close to landing the plane last night, but this morning there’s been some more complications. I think if this were just between me and Todd Blanche, we would have worked this out,” Cornyn added.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is not seeking reelection over his disagreement with the Trump administration, has also made clear his opposition to the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
“He [Blanche] is a qualified candidate. We just need to get the issues off the table,” Tillis said on Wednesday.
What happens if Blanche is not confirmed?
Todd Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general for the DOJ since Trump removed Pam Bondi in April over her handling of the Epstein files. Unlike interim U.S. prosecutors, who can lawfully serve 120 days without a Senate confirmation, an acting attorney general can serve for as long as a president wants.
That is because of U.S. Code § 508, which states that “the Deputy Attorney General may exercise all the duties of that office” if the office of Attorney General is vacant and the law does not state a time limit for how long the acting attorney general can legally serve.
The law, which was passed decades before the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (VRA) of 1998, takes legal precedence. While the FVRA generally limits officials serving in a temporary capacity to no longer than 210 days after the position becomes vacant, the law also made exceptions to agency-specific laws that had been previously codified.
A similar arrangement existed under the Biden administration. In 2023, after Marty Walsh resigned as labor secretary, President Biden nominated Julie Su to fill the vacancy. Su, who had served as deputy labor secretary, ultimately failed to get confirmed by the Senate due to the lack of support from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Su served as acting labor secretary for the rest of the Biden administration under a similar statutory provision, despite Republicans’ objections. In 2023, the Government Accountability Office, which oversees the federal government’s compliance with vacancy laws, concluded in a letter that time limitations “do not apply” to Su’s case.
What did Blanche say about the demands?
During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Todd Blanche said the Anti-Weaponization Fund was “dead.”
However, Sen. Cornyn pointed out during the hearing that the settlement agreement made between Trump and the Department of Justice that included the fund could only be modified through “a written agreement” between two parties. When pressed by Cornyn, Blanche said Trump could potentially enforce the agreement if he decides to do so.
“They [Trump’s legal counsel] could say that we breached by not moving forward,” Blanche said.
TIME has also reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
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