The man Donald Trump wants running the Justice Department can't even get out of committee because Republican senators don't trust that Trump's personal IRS settlement is on the level. Todd Blanche's confirmation markup was scrapped Wednesday night after key GOP votes demanded written assurances that the president isn't handing himself a permanent get-out-of-audit-free card. The ball, as Senator John Cornyn put it, is in Blanche's court.
What Got Cancelled and Why
The Senate Judiciary Committee was supposed to hold a markup vote on Blanche's nomination Wednesday. According to The Guardian, that vote got quietly shelved after it became clear there wasn't enough Republican support to push it through favorably. The committee spokesperson confirmed the delay in a statement, describing Blanche as "highly qualified" while announcing the postponement, which is exactly the kind of thing you say when the nominee is very much not sailing through.
The holdup isn't some procedural technicality. It comes directly from the Trump administration's recent settlement with the IRS, a deal that includes a provision critics have called the 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' and what amounts to a sweeping grant of tax immunity for the president. Two Republican senators looked at that arrangement and decided they needed something more than a verbal handshake before they'd vote to confirm the man who'd be overseeing it.
Cornyn and Tillis Are Not Playing Along
Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina are the holdouts, and they are being specific about what they want. The Guardian reports that both senators have demanded written confirmation that the Anti-Weaponization Fund is dead, and pressed for a precise accounting of how far that tax immunity deal actually reaches.
Cornyn's concern in particular is surgical: he wants the administration to formally clarify that the settlement only covers Trump's existing audits and cannot be stretched to shield the president from scrutiny of future tax filings. That is a reasonable thing to want in writing when you are being asked to confirm the attorney general of the United States. The fact that the Justice Department apparently hasn't just done that is doing a lot of work here.
Cornyn told reporters Wednesday that DOJ has been "stonewalling" and accused them of refusing help in reaching a resolution. "We've been trying to help them get to a conclusion here and they won't let us," Cornyn said. "It's befuddling to me." This is a senator who just lost his own Republican primary in Texas saying the Trump Justice Department is too opaque for his comfort. That is not a small thing.
What Exactly Is the IRS Settlement?
Let's be clear about what's underneath this fight. Trump sued the IRS, and the resulting settlement included a provision that critics described as a blanket tax immunity arrangement for the president, alongside the creation of something called the 'Anti-Weaponization Fund.' That name alone should have raised flags in every room it entered.
The concern from Cornyn and Tillis is not abstract. If the immunity language in that settlement is broad enough, it could theoretically insulate Trump from any future IRS examination, not just the ones already underway. That would mean a sitting or former president negotiated himself a personal exemption from tax scrutiny while his nominee for attorney general waits in the hallway. Cornyn wants that loophole closed in ink before he votes yes. The Justice Department has apparently found this request confusing.
Meanwhile, the Rest of Wednesday Happened
In the category of sentences that should not exist: Marjorie Taylor Greene married Brian Glenn in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Glenn, according to The Guardian, is a self-described "Maga mouthpiece" who quit his job as White House correspondent for far-right network Real America's Voice after Greene fell out of Trump's favor for supporting the release of Epstein files and criticizing the 2025 bombing of Iran. Two people exiled from the president's social circle found each other. Somewhere a Vegas chapel made history it will never fully understand.
The Senate also unanimously passed a resolution opposing any presidential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving 20 years for sex trafficking. Unanimous. Every senator. That vote exists because the possibility of a pardon is real enough to require a formal statement of opposition from the full chamber. Think about that for a second.
And then there's James Comey. Lawyers for the former FBI director alleged Wednesday, per The Guardian, that Secret Service agents illegally surveilled him, that Trump personally requested regular updates on the investigation, and that law enforcement consulted both ChatGPT and a known mafia killer while trying to build a criminal case against Comey. The underlying crime they were investigating: a photo of seashells arranged to spell "8647." This is the justice system working as currently designed.
The Blanche Problem Isn't Going Away
Blanche, for those keeping score at home, is the former Trump personal attorney who successfully got his client's hush money conviction overturned and was rewarded with a nomination to run the Justice Department. His confirmation was never going to be smooth sailing given that the department he'd be leading is actively involved in settling his boss's personal lawsuits and investigating his boss's political enemies.
But having two Republican senators pump the brakes specifically because they don't trust the terms of a settlement the White House already agreed to is a different kind of problem. The Guardian reports the committee is continuing to work toward securing sufficient support. Translation: they're still counting votes and they don't have them yet.
The Dingo Take
You are supposed to believe this is a routine confirmation delay, a scheduling hiccup, a few senators dotting their i's. It is not. Two Republican senators are refusing to advance the president's attorney general pick because they want written proof that the president hasn't quietly exempted himself from IRS scrutiny for the rest of his life. They are asking for paperwork confirming a thing that should be obviously, automatically, constitutionally true. The Justice Department is stonewalling them.
The fact that Cornyn and Tillis have to fight for a written clarification on this tells you exactly how confident the administration is that they can sell the settlement's scope as narrow and benign. They can't, or they already would have. Blanche is stuck because the department he's been nominated to lead won't produce a document assuring senators that the president isn't above future tax law. That's the whole story in one sentence.
Elsewhere in Wednesday's news: a mafia killer was consulted to justify charging a man for a seashell photo. A unanimous Senate had to formally go on record against pardoning a convicted sex trafficker because the pardon is apparently on the table. Two Trump exiles got married in Vegas. The Blanche nomination is the most normal thing that happened, and it involves senators demanding written proof that the president can't just opt out of taxes forever. This is the pace we're living at now. Keep up.
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