Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche suffers ‘stinging rebuke,’ analyst says, as Senate Judiciary Committee pushes confirmation vote amid GOP concerns

The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote scheduled to advance acting Attorney General Todd Blanche‘s nomination to permanently lead the Justice Department after two Republican senators withheld support pending written assurances from the administration.

“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure. Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement. Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report Attorney General-nominee Todd Blanche, who is highly qualified for the job,” a committee spokesperson on July 29, 2026.

Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that “this postponement itself is a stinging rebuke of Todd Blanche coming from senators of his own party.”

He added, “However this plays out, this is a genuine embarrassment for Todd Blanche. It says a lot about his credibility when senators of his own party don’t even trust his under-oath testimony.”

Cornyn meeting canceled

Sen. John Cornyn‘s planned July 29 meeting with Blanche was canceled, adding uncertainty to the nomination.

The Texas Republican has demanded written assurances regarding the Justice Department’s proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, saying department officials “know what they need to do but they simply refuse to do it.”

“I haven’t seen a single piece of writing that is responsive to what I’ve requested,” Cornyn told reporters.

Cornyn said he would not support Blanche’s nomination without a resolution and noted Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley had given him until 4 p.m. to determine whether Thursday’s vote could proceed.

Shortly before that deadline, Cornyn headed into a meeting with Grassley. Asked why the department had not provided the requested assurances, he replied, “Maybe they think they can roll me.”

When asked whether the department could secure his vote without them, Cornyn answered, “No.”

After the meeting, he said he still did not know whether the committee would vote Thursday, calling it “a very unusual circumstance.”

At the White House, President Donald Trump defended Blanche.

“Todd Blanche is outstanding … Maybe John Cornyn is upset with me because I didn’t endorse him [in the Texas Senate race], I don’t know what it is,” Trump said.

Responding to those remarks, Cornyn told CNN, “That’s a convenient excuse and it happens to be untrue.”

Controversy over the ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

The proposed fund was intended to compensate people who claimed they had been unfairly targeted by government investigations. Blanche described it as a response to what Trump and his allies call “lawfare.”

The proposal drew bipartisan criticism and legal challenges, prompting the administration to comply with a federal court order temporarily blocking the program while litigation continues.

Critics warned the fund could compensate people convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including those convicted of assaulting police officers. Blanche declined to publicly rule out that possibility.

At his July 15 confirmation hearing, Blanche told lawmakers the department was “not moving forward with the fund, period.”

Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis have argued that without changes to the underlying settlement, the fund or its IRS audit-immunity provisions could later be revived through the courts.

According to reporting from MS NOW, the senators want Blanche to formally eliminate the fund and narrow IRS audit protections covering Trump, his family, businesses and others under the settlement.

Craig Agranoff, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University, told Newsweek that “Cornyn is making a realistic ask given the unusual structure of that settlement agreement. Senators routinely demand written commitments on nominations when the language leaves open the possibility of something being revived later.”

He added, “Blanche needs every Republican vote he can get on a closely divided Judiciary Committee. This is classic leverage politics. The administration may ultimately decide a written clarification is a small price to pay for getting their AG confirmed.”

Epstein survivors describe dismissive meeting

Dani Bensky, one of several Jeffrey Epstein survivors who met with Blanche earlier this month, described the meeting as dismissive and unproductive.

“The meeting was very condescending, a lot of talking in circles, arguing semantics … We walked away with absolutely no answers and it felt like a no-win situation,” Bensky said.

She said Blanche repeatedly interrupted survivors.

“He actually said the words ‘get to the point’ to us survivors who’ve been waiting to meet with him for eight months,” she said. “He said, ‘Can you get to the point already? What are you getting at?’”

Bensky added, “There was no integrity. There was no understanding that he’s dealing with the largest sex trafficking ring that we’ve seen in the U.S. ever.”

Another survivor, Annie Farmer, said the meeting strengthened her opposition to Blanche’s confirmation.

“After meeting with Todd Blanche, I feel even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States Attorney General,” Farmer said. “I found him abrasive, condescending and intentionally noncommittal to survivors — a marked contrast to his public testimony during his confirmation hearing.”

Farmer said Blanche would not commit to investigating why her sister, Maria Farmer, reported Epstein’s alleged abuse in 1996 but the claims were not fully investigated.

Blanche and the Justice Department have disputed the survivors’ characterization of the meeting, describing it as productive.

What happens next

It remains unclear when the Judiciary Committee will vote on Blanche’s nomination.

According to Government Executive, the committee initially moved the markup to Thursday, July 30, with the delay described by a Grassley spokesperson as “per standard committee practice.” Grassley, Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse used the scheduled meeting time to discuss the nomination. Cornyn attended, while Tillis was among several absent.

Later reporting from MS NOW, however, suggested the delay could stretch into September or beyond.

Grassley canceled Wednesday night’s markup after it became clear Republicans lacked the votes to advance Blanche. Cornyn and Tillis continued withholding support despite exchanging draft language with the Justice Department earlier that day.

A Justice Department spokesperson told MS NOW the department has been in “regular communication” with committee members for weeks and looks forward to “continuing to work productively with Senators to address any concerns.”

With the Senate leaving Washington for its August recess, the timing of a rescheduled vote remained uncertain.