Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a formal order late on Sunday, August 3, 2026, terminating Donald Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund," rescinding the May 18 order that created it. The move followed weeks of negotiations with two Republican senators who had been blocking his nomination to become attorney general and clears a path for a Senate Judiciary Committee vote scheduled for Tuesday, August 5. The Guardian Reuters

Texas Senator John Cornyn, one of the two Republican senators holding up the nomination, had his spokesperson confirm the agreement. North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, the other Republican senator blocking the nomination, had no immediate comment. Both senators' holds centered on concerns about the fund's structure and scope, though their specific objections converged from different directions. Cornyn had questioned Blanche on the anti-weaponization fund during confirmation proceedings, during which Blanche stated that others cannot force the Department of Justice to move forward with the weaponization fund. Cornyn Senate Office

The fund's origins trace to a settlement agreement directing the Attorney General to establish funding and operational requirements for an Anti-Weaponization Fund within 30 days of the settlement's effective date. The Justice Department formally announced the fund's creation on May 19, 2026, allocating $1.776 billion. Under the original terms, the fund was to consist of five members and was required to cease processing claims no later than December 1. DOJ OPA

The broader settlement that birthed the fund also contained a provision granting broad immunity from tax audits for Trump and his family. Blanche's rescission order on Sunday did not stop at the fund itself. The document also narrowed the scope of that settlement provision, clarifying that the tax audit immunity applies only retroactively to claims that were open at the time of settlement, not prospectively to future tax matters. That narrowing addressed a parallel line of scrutiny from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who had renewed a probe into what he called the "cop-beaters slush fund" and the Trump family tax fraud amnesty deal ahead of Blanche's nomination hearing, noting that Blanche had greenlighted the purported settlement. Whitehouse Senate Office

Democratic senators had pressed Blanche on the fund repeatedly during his confirmation hearing. Senator Mazie Hirono pressed Blanche on his failure to rescind the fund and obtained a commitment from him on the record. Senator Chris Coons questioned Blanche on the proposed $1.8 billion fund that Blanche had attempted to create for President Trump. Senator Alex Padilla issued a statement criticizing Blanche for establishing what he termed a "slush fund." Hirono Senate Office Coons Senate Office Padilla Senate Office

Earlier on Sunday evening, Trump publicly defended the fund's intended beneficiaries, saying that people who faced charges from the January 6 attack on the Capitol and could have benefited from the fund had "their lives destroyed." The fund had been designed to compensate individuals who, in the administration's framing, were targets of politically motivated prosecutions. Blanche himself had previously framed the initiative as a corrective, stating that the "weaponization that happened under the Biden Administration will not happen again" as the Justice Department "restores integrity to its prosecutorial system." DOJ OPA

The rescission illustrates the leverage that individual senators can exert over nominations when they control the margin in a closely divided chamber. Cornyn and Tillis, both Republicans, extracted concrete concessions from a nominee of their own party's administration. The narrowed tax audit provision, in particular, suggests that the settlement's original language was broad enough to draw concern not only from Democratic critics but from GOP senators evaluating whether the deal's protections extended further than was defensible.

The timing is tight. A Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Blanche's nomination was scheduled for the Tuesday following the announcement, giving the rescission order roughly 36 hours to settle the political landscape before senators vote. Whether the concessions satisfy Cornyn and Tillis fully, and whether the narrowed tax audit immunity assuages Whitehouse's parallel probe, will determine whether Blanche clears the committee and advances to a floor vote. The fund itself, created in May and terminated in August, never processed a claim.