Acting United States Attorney General Todd Blanche has secured the support of two key Republican holdouts on the Senate Judiciary Committee, clearing the path for his confirmation as the country's permanent top law enforcement officer. The breakthrough came after Blanche released written orders on Sunday rescinding an $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" that had drawn fierce bipartisan criticism, and narrowing the scope of a controversial tax immunity arrangement that had shielded President Donald Trump, his family, and business affiliates from audit-related penalties.

Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — both of whom had threatened to block Blanche's nomination — announced Monday they would support him when the Judiciary Committee votes on Tuesday. Both described the written commitments as "binding." The fund, which arose from a lawsuit Trump filed against the Internal Revenue Service over the unauthorised release of his tax returns, had attracted outrage across the political spectrum over concerns it could funnel taxpayer money to January 6 Capitol riot defendants and other Trump allies. A federal judge had already blocked the fund, calling the underlying lawsuit "bad faith" litigation designed to engineer a favourable outcome for the president. Blanche's new order states the fund is "rescinded and shall have no force or effect."

The two senators belong to what Washington insiders are calling the "YOLO" caucus — legislators who are not seeking re-election and are therefore less vulnerable to pressure from the White House. Both Cornyn and Tillis had already drawn Trump's ire: the president backed a primary challenger against Cornyn in Texas, who subsequently lost, and threatened similar action in North Carolina, prompting Tillis to announce he would not seek re-election. Their willingness to extract written concessions from Blanche represents a rare instance of Congress imposing limits on the administration.

Critics, however, are far from satisfied. Democratic senators and legal experts argue the concessions are effectively hollow. The written orders rescind the Justice Department's internal directive creating the fund, but do not modify the original settlement agreement — meaning Trump or his sons, as plaintiffs in the case, could theoretically sue to enforce it. Democrats including Senators Adam Schiff, Richard Blumenthal, and Sheldon Whitehouse noted that the deal does nothing to prevent January 6 defendants from pursuing payouts through other existing legal mechanisms, such as the Federal Tort Claims Act, or to stop the administration from reviving the fund under a different name. "These assurances are not worth the paper they're written on," said Brandon DeBot of the Tax Law Center at NYU.

President Trump's own statements added to the uncertainty. Over the weekend he praised the fund publicly and threatened to revive it if Blanche was not confirmed, and on Monday said he had not seen the agreement in detail but had approved Blanche's release of the written guarantees. With Cornyn and Tillis now on board, Blanche appears to have sufficient votes both in committee and in the full Senate, where a confirmation vote is expected Saturday. His confirmation would end months of turbulence over the leadership of the Justice Department — though critics warn the underlying questions about institutional independence remain unresolved.