Blanche scraps anti-weaponization fund as Trump feud deepens in Senate

Todd Blanche issued an order Sunday evening formally rescinding the Justice Department’s plan for a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, removing a major obstacle before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote set for Tuesday. The withdrawal came after days of pressure from Republican senators who wanted a written guarantee that President Donald Trump could not bring the program back.

The fund had been designed to compensate people who said they had been unfairly targeted or investigated by the federal government. It quickly triggered rare bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill, where critics described it as a potential slush fund for Trump loyalists and Jan. 6 rioters. The proposal was alternately described as $1.8 billion and $1.776 billion in public accounts.

Blanche had already told House lawmakers on June 2 that the Justice Department was scrapping the plan, and he repeated at a July 15 Senate confirmation hearing that the fund was “dead” and that the department had no plans to launch it. But Trump revived the fight on July 31 and Aug. 1, defending the idea and saying he could restore it if Senate Republicans blocked Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general.

That warning sharpened the conflict with two GOP holdouts, Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn, who sought a written commitment that the fund would not be restarted. CBS News said Blanche’s rescission came after Tillis and Cornyn threatened to block his confirmation. NBC News said the dispute became a confirmation hurdle for Blanche’s bid to become attorney general.

The episode exposed a deeper fault line inside the party: whether Senate Republicans were willing to put a formal brake on politicized law-enforcement spending, or whether the administration was simply retreating under pressure until the confirmation fight passed. Blanche’s written rescission answered the immediate Senate demand, but it also showed how quickly Trump’s public defense of the fund turned a shelved proposal into a test of Republican leverage over the Justice Department.