Cornyn Says He’s Undecided on Blanche Over Acting AG’s Response to Questions About Slush Fund

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) indicated to CNN Wednesday that he was undecided on voting to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to that position permanently due to Blanche’s response to his questions about President Donald Trump’s corrupt slush fund.

On the first day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats and a few Republicans questioned Blanche on the so-called $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that came out of Trump’s settlement with his own Internal Revenue Services (IRS).

Blanche, as he has told Congress before, repeatedly said that the slush fund is “dead” and that it is “not moving forward.” 

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was one of the few Republicans who pushed back on Blanche’s insistence that the slush fund is dead.

“I would refer you to the settlement agreement,” Cornyn said. Reading from the settlement out loud, Cornyn continued: “On page four — this settlement agreement may be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties. Has there been a written agreement of the parties to modify the settlement fund?” 

“No, the settlement fund is not moving forward. There is no modification. It never started … It’s not moving forward,” Blanche said.

Cornyn then pushed back, asking Blanche if the settlement agreement is enforceable as a contract. That led Blanche to confirm that Trump’s counsel could, in fact, seek to enforce the agreement.

“They can’t force the Department of Justice to move forward with the weaponization fund. They could potentially say that, I suppose, that we breached by not moving forward,” Blanche said, adding, “They haven’t done that and I’m not aware that they’re planning on doing that.”

Blanche also added that he thinks Congress could codify that the fund is defunct into law to guarantee that “there is no weaponization fund.”

“But just to be clear, the President of the United States, who is the plaintiff in this lawsuit, has not agreed in writing to delete the weaponization fund. And there is no guarantee that he or one of the other plaintiffs might raise that issue by way of a lawsuit — a breach of contract lawsuit in the future,” Cornyn pushed back again.

Blanche avoided answering that question directly but did admit that “they could bring a lawsuit and then we would litigate it.”

Following his questioning, Cornyn told CNN that he is undecided on how he will vote for the Blanche nomination.

“Well he basically confirmed that it’s not dead,” Cornyn told CNN’S Manu Raju when asked if he was satisfied with Blanche’s answers on the fund. “That it cannot be changed without written consent of the parties, according to the settlement agreement, there is no written consent of the parties and he agreed that it could be enforced as a matter of contract.”

When asked if that concerned him Cornyn said, “Yeah.” 

“I continue to have some concerns, but I’m not going to make any decisions at this point,” he said.  

“I’m gonna wait until we actually vote on the confirmation in a week or so,” he continued, suggesting he may vote to advance Blanche’s nomination out of committee.

Cornyn is one of two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who has suggested that Blanche’s role in the creation of a slush fund to compensate Trump’s political supporters and allies gave him pause about voting to confirm him as attorney general.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has expressed issues with the fund as well, but did not appear to hold Blanche accountable for it during his questioning on Wednesday, beyond suggesting that lawmakers should pass legislation that would officially “stick a fork in this turkey of a 1776 fund.”