SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Two Republican senators say they will support Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general. They had threatened to block his nomination over concerns about the Justice Department's deal with President Trump to end his IRS lawsuit. Now the lawmakers say they have the written assurances they were demanding, paving the way for his nomination to move forward. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this and joins us now. Hi, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.
DETROW: So the two Republican senators who had been blocking Blanche's nomination were John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. How did Blanche finally win their support?
LUCAS: Right. Well, look, Cornyn and Tillis are both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that has to vote on this nomination. And as you said, they were demanding written assurances from the Justice Department about the settlement deal the DOJ struck with Trump to end his lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns. They wanted in writing that the nearly $1.8 billion pot of taxpayer money dubbed the anti-weaponization fund, that it was officially dead and not moving forward. And they wanted Blanche to clarify, again, in writing the scope of the very broad tax immunity deal that shields Trump, his family and businesses from audits of past tax returns. And so after many days of negotiations and talks to try to find a resolution to this, late last night, Blanche posted two documents that purport to address those very issues.
DETROW: So what exactly did the documents say?
LUCAS: Well, one of them is signed by Blanche. It formally rescinds the order that created the anti-weaponization fund. Blanche says in this document he is confirming, quote, "beyond any doubt that there is no fund" end quote. The other document is unsigned, but it addresses the scope of the tax immunity deal. It states that what Blanche testified at his confirmation hearing about the scope is correct. So in other words, the immunity deal only applies to Trump, two of his sons and the Trump organization instead of a much larger kind of nebulous group of people and family members as originally written - also, that the deal is limited to past tax returns, so not new ones, and that it only applies to the IRS.
DETROW: Let's look at this from a few different angles now. Let's take the legal perspective. Do these documents fix the issues the senators have raised?
LUCAS: Yeah, that's a good question, in part because Cornyn himself has publicly pointed out that the settlement as written can only be modified by the parties. That would include President Trump. And these documents that Blanche released last night are not signed by the parties. Now, I spoke to Brandon DeBot about this. He's the policy director at the Tax Law Center at NYU Law, and he said the documents that Blanche put out don't actually provide the guarantees that they purport to.
BRANDON DEBOT: These assurances are not worth the paper they're written on. They don't pull back on the attempts to give the president and his affiliates unauthorized immunity from tax audits. And they don't do anything new to stop the president from trying to bring back the fund.
LUCAS: Now to actually change the settlement deal that creates the anti-weaponization fund, DeBot says that would require the agreement of all parties. As for the tax immunity deal, DeBot says Blanche would have to rescind or modify his original order. And to be clear, neither of those things has happened according to these documents. It's also worth noting that Trump has repeatedly said he thinks the anti-weaponization fund is a good thing, that it's necessary, which, of course, fuels concern that Trump could just push to revive this in the future.
DETROW: And that gets to the politics of this. And on that front, it seems like Blanche appears to have threaded the needle here?
LUCAS: That's right. Blanche had to do enough to win Cornyn's and Tillis' support, and he appears to have done exactly that. The two senators put out a statement today. They said they are pleased that the Justice Department has issued, as they put it, a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund and a binding written order that limits the scope of the tax audit settlement. They also thanked Blanche and his staff. They say they look forward to voting to advance his nomination for attorney general. The Senate judiciary is expected to vote on that tomorrow, and if Blanche advances, as he's now expected to do, he would still face a vote on final confirmation down the road in the full Senate.
DETROW: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Thank you so much.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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