A scheduled Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Todd Blanche's nomination as U.S. attorney general was postponed Wednesday night after two Republican senators said they still had unresolved concerns about a settlement between President Donald Trump and the IRS.
The postponement was reported by CNBC. Without the votes of Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, the nomination cannot advance out of the 22-member committee. The panel has 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats, and every Democrat is expected to vote against Blanche. That means a single Republican defection could block the nomination from reaching a full Senate floor vote.
Cornyn canceled a meeting Wednesday morning with Blanche, who is currently serving as acting attorney general, citing the Justice Department's failure to address his concerns. Those concerns center on provisions of the settlement that shield Trump and others from IRS audits on tax returns filed before the agreement was reached.
When reporters asked Cornyn why the Justice Department had not satisfied his demands, he said "beats me." He went on to say he believed Tillis shared his position.
"Maybe they think I'm just going to give up or, you know, go along," Cornyn said. "But they're mistaken."
He added: "So they better get real, and there's not much time left."
Tillis had separately warned that he did not expect his concerns to be addressed in time to change his vote by Thursday morning. Both senators also raised objections to another element of the settlement: a $1.8 billion fund created by the Justice Department to compensate people described as victims of prosecutorial overreach. Blanche said he canceled that fund after criticism from members of Congress, but Cornyn, Tillis, and others have pushed for a written guarantee.
Shortly before the postponement was announced, the Justice Department sent a new written response to the two senators. The contents of that response were not immediately detailed.
A statement from a Senate Judiciary spokesperson said Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-IA, "works to set President Trump's nominees up for success in committee, not failure" and described Thursday's markup as postponed while work continues to secure enough votes to advance the nomination.
Blanche is a former criminal defense attorney who represented Trump in multiple legal proceedings. No new vote date has been announced.
