A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote today on Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This is a step toward Blanche's final confirmation, and he appears to have the majority now the two Republicans have said their objections have been addressed. Blanche made statements relating to a fund that could be paid to the president's political supporters and also a tax-immunity deal. In a few moments, we'll hear from a Democrat who sits on that same committee, Senator Alex Padilla of California.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us now with more. So, Ryan, for much of the past week, it wasn't really clear whether Blanche's nomination would get through or actually survive. So now the Senate Judiciary Committee is about to vote on it. What changed?
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Right. Well, what happened is Blanche and the Justice Department managed to provide the sort of written guarantees that addressed the demands of Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. Now, Cornyn and Tillis are both Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Their support is critical for Blanche's nomination to advance. And they wanted written confirmation that a controversial $1.8 billion antiweaponization fund is dead and also written limits to a tax-immunity deal for Trump, his family and businesses.
Late Sunday, Blanche released two documents that purport to address those. One says it formally rescinds the order that created the antiweaponization fund, meaning the fund is dead. The other purports to clarify the scope of the tax-immunity deal, including that it only applies retroactively and only to Trump, two of his sons and the Trump organization. That said, legal experts say neither document that Blanche released is actually legally binding, and they don't provide the sort of ironclad guarantees that they purport to. But they are enough for Cornyn and Tillis, who yesterday thanked Blanche for the assurances and said they would now support his nomination.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And typically, Republicans rubber-stamp the president's nominees. But why was this issue one that really got these two senators to hold up Blanche's nomination?
LUCAS: Look, this antiweaponization fund was deeply unpopular with Republican senators from the very beginning. Remember, this would be $1.8 billion of taxpayer money that the DOJ said could be doled out to, in essence, anyone. That includes rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6 and beat up cops. The tax-immunity deal was also problematic for some Republicans. As Cornyn himself put it last week, that deal would provide Trump with benefits that no other American taxpayer could get. To be clear, those benefits still very much remain in place.
It's also worth pointing out that there is a long list of other issues at the Justice Department that legal experts, department veterans think should make Congress question Blanche's leadership as well as his fitness to be attorney general.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Such as?
LUCAS: Well, some point to his handling of the Epstein files. You can also look at the department's politicization under Blanche or the targeting of Trump's perceived enemies. But more broadly, there's also the unraveling of what's known as the presumption of regularity - this idea that courts assume that DOJ officials are acting properly, acting in good faith, that they're making accurate factual representations in court.
Under this administration, federal judges - we have seen them repeatedly express concerns about the Justice Department not complying with court orders. Judges have questioned the representations that the DOJ has made in court. We have also seen high-profile cases unravel in spectacular fashion. Just in the past few days, for example, the U.S. attorney's office here in D.C. moved to dismiss its felony vandalism case against former Olympic canoeist for damage to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. In a court filing, the DOJ said the damage to the reflecting pool wasn't caused by vandalism but instead was just the result of a botched installation job.
So a dramatic climbdown and, as I said, really a long list of issues that raise concerns for many folks about Blanche. And yet these issues haven't really been much of a speed bump at all in his nomination process.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thanks.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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