Todd Blanche has formally buried a controversial compensation fund linked to the January 6 Capitol riot, removing a major obstacle to his confirmation as US attorney general and easing concerns from key Republican senators.
Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche has officially withdrawn President Donald Trump’s proposed compensation fund that critics feared could benefit people prosecuted over the 6 January 2021 US Capitol riot.
The decision comes just days before the US Senate is expected to vote on Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general on a permanent basis.
In a post on X late Sunday, Blanche said he had spent recent weeks meeting with senators and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to address concerns surrounding the proposal.
To remove any remaining doubts, he released a signed order declaring that the fund no longer exists.
“This Order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund,” Blanche wrote in the document.
The proposed $1.8bn “anti-weaponisation” fund was announced earlier this year as part of a legal settlement involving Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the disclosure of his tax returns.
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The plan would have allowed Trump allies to seek compensation for what they described as politically motivated prosecutions. Critics, however, argued it could have opened the door for payments to some individuals prosecuted for their roles in the Capitol riot, including those convicted of attacking police officers.
Another point of concern involved a provision that would have protected Trump, his family and the Trump Organization from certain IRS tax audits. Blanche later clarified that any audit protection would apply only to the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Two Republican senators, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, had refused to support Blanche’s confirmation until the proposal was formally withdrawn.
A spokesperson for Cornyn said the senator had reached an agreement with the Justice Department. Tillis has not commented since the latest announcement, although he previously criticised the proposal, describing it as a potential “payout pot for punks.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to consider Blanche’s nomination on Tuesday, with the withdrawal of the fund widely seen as clearing one of the final hurdles to his confirmation.
