Republican Senator Grills Todd Blanche on Trump’s Shady Slush Fund

Republican Senator John Cornyn directed serious concerns about the status of President Trump’s “anti-weaponization” slush fund to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

In a series of well-directed questions, the Texas senator undermined the very basis of the settlement agreement resolving the Trump family’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over Trump’s leaked tax returns, which created the slush fund.

“There’s so much that’s unusual about this,” Cornyn said. “[The leaked tax returns] happened back in 2020, and the lawsuit wasn’t brought until 2026, so with the two-year statute of limitations … that struck me as unusual.”

Cornyn then moved on to the text of the settlement agreement.

“On page four: ‘This settlement agreement … may be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties’ Has there been a written agreement of the parties to modify the settlement fund?”

“No, the settlement fund is just not moving forward,” Blanche replied. “There’s no modification. It’s just it never started. No money went from the Treasury to any other account. There’s no commissioners. It’s not moving forward.”

“Is the settlement agreement enforceable as a contract by the parties?”

“Well, yes, it’s an enforceable document,” Blanche conceded. “So I suppose if President Trump’s counsel sought to enforce it, that they potentially could.”

“Including the weaponization fund,” Cornyn said, making the obvious connection.

“Well, they could try to enforce the contract. They can’t force the Department of Justice to move forward with the weaponization fund. They could potentially say that, I suppose, that we breached by not moving forward. They haven’t done that, and I’m not aware that they’re planning on doing that,” Blanche replied.

Cornyn then asked directly what Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, had been avoiding.

“But just to be clear, the president of the United States, who was the plaintiff in this lawsuit, has not agreed in writing to delete the weaponization fund, and there’s no guarantee that he or one of the other plaintiffs might raise that issue by way of a lawsuit and a breach of contract lawsuit in the future?”

“Well, senator, the plaintiffs have no power over the fund. The fund was administered solely by the five commissioners and through the Department of Justice. So no, they don’t have any power with respect to the fund at all. I suppose they could bring a lawsuit, and then we would litigate it. But even if we were litigating it, there’s no fund, so the results of such litigation, whatever it would be, wouldn’t be a revival of the fund.”

Blanche can say how dead the slush fund is as much as he wants, but that won’t convince anyone until it’s actually in writing, which it isn’t. It’s a bad look for Blanche when even Republicans realize that.
CORNYN: The president, who's a plaintiff in this lawsuit, has not agreed in writing to delete the weaponization fund, and there's no guarantee that he or one of the other plaintiffs might raise that issue by way of a breach of contract lawsuit?

BLANCHE: I suppose they could… pic.twitter.com/6bAAvuVL4p
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2026 ...