WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday he may pull acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination for the full-time post to avoid making concessions to Senate Republicans demanding limits to a sweeping tax audit immunity deal benefiting the president and members of his family that Trump negotiated with his own Department of Justice.
Trump doubled down on choosing his former personal lawyer as the nation’s top lawman, calling him “a STAR” and saying he will keep him in the role as acting attorney general until Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina leave office.
“I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,” Trump posted on his social media site.
Cornyn and Tillis, who both leave office next year, have said they won’t back Blanche’s nomination without additional assurances spelling an end to a proposed $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” created to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Through Blanche has repeatedly insisted that the fund is not moving forward, skeptical lawmakers have pushed for a commitment in writing especially since Trump has expressed continued support for the idea.
The two senators have also pressed Trump’s administration to modify the tax immunity agreement to make clear that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.
Tillis characterized the president’s position as “win a battle, lose a war.”
“It makes no sense to me,” Tillis said. “This is not popular. The president’s not winning on this issue. It is killing some of our candidates because they can’t explain it. And now, it looks like they weren’t being honest when they said it was inoperative.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee was forced to scrap a planned vote for Thursday to advance Blanche’s nomination after the Justice Department and the Republican senators failed to reach a resolution despite hours of negotiations. With all Democratic senators opposed, just one Republican holdout on the committee could sink Blanche’s prospects for confirmation.
“I don’t know whether they think they can wait us out or we’ll cave, but I assure you we won’t,” Cornyn said Thursday of the Trump administration. In a social media post responding to Trump’s suggestion that he may pull Blanche’s nomination, Cornyn wrote that the president is “mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”
Through it would be politically embarrassing for the Trump administration, pulling Blanche’s nomination would likely have little practical impact on the management of the Justice Department.
Blanche can still lead the department as either acting attorney general or deputy attorney general, the No. 2 post he was confirmed to last year. The deputy attorney general, who runs the day-to-day operations of the law enforcement agency, is able to perform the duties of the attorney general if that post is vacant.
The department said in June that it was no longer moving forward with the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” amid bipartisan outrage, but officials have said the audit immunity agreement for Trump remains in place.
Associated Press reporters Kevin Freking and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.
