GOP Senators reject illegal attempts by Trump – Capitol Hill Blue

Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general suffered a serious blow on Thursday when President Trump threatened to withdraw Mr. Blanche’s name rather than place limits on a tax immunity deal that would benefit himself and his family, as demanded by two Republican senators.

Mr. Trump’s threat, posted on social media, followed 24 hours of frenetic and fruitless negotiations among Mr. Blanche, the White House and the two senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who are not returning to Congress next year.

“I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,” Mr. Trump wrote, in a fight that has exposed the limits of his power over Congress.

That set off a late-day scramble to rescue Mr. Blanche’s nomination, and the semblance of intraparty, interbranch comity. Mr. Tillis and Mr. Cornyn met privately with Mr. Blanche Thursday afternoon in the offices of the National Republican Senatorial Committee near the Capitol. It was not immediately clear if they broke the impasse.

Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis object to a deal negotiated by Mr. Blanche and Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers to resolve a lawsuit the president had filed against the I.R.S. The deal gave Mr. Trump, his family and his businesses broad immunity against I.R.S. audits, potentially saving them at least $100 million in penalties. Democrats and even some Republican lawmakers criticized the deal as a giveaway to the Trump family.

The two senators want to narrow the deal in order to advance Mr. Blanche’s nomination, demanding that he put in writing what he acknowledged at his confirmation hearing: that the provision applies to only Mr. Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization, and that it would be limited to audits of past tax returns. But the administration so far has refused.

Mr. Blanche cannot afford a single Republican defection on the Senate Judiciary Committee if he hopes to advance his confirmation to the Senate floor. The opposition of Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis leaves him two short, forcing the committee to scrap its scheduled vote on Thursday.

Mr. Trump would have ways to allow Mr. Blanche, the president’s former top defense lawyer, to effectively remain as acting attorney general indefinitely.

But the fact that some Republicans, emboldened by Mr. Trump’s declining popularity and alarmed by his lack of concern for their own political fortunes, even temporarily derailed a flagship nominee raised questions about Mr. Trump’s capacity to sustain the dominance over congressional Republicans that has allowed him to exert unmediated control over the department.

Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis object to a deal negotiated by Mr. Blanche and Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers to resolve a lawsuit the president had filed against the I.R.S. The deal gave Mr. Trump, his family and his businesses broad immunity against I.R.S. audits, potentially saving them at least $100 million in penalties. Democrats and even some Republican lawmakers criticized the deal as a giveaway to the Trump family.

The two senators want to narrow the deal in order to advance Mr. Blanche’s nomination, demanding that he put in writing what he acknowledged at his confirmation hearing: that the provision applies to only Mr. Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization, and that it would be limited to audits of past tax returns. But the administration so far has refused.

Mr. Blanche cannot afford a single Republican defection on the Senate Judiciary Committee if he hopes to advance his confirmation to the Senate floor. The opposition of Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis leaves him two short, forcing the committee to scrap its scheduled vote on Thursday.

Mr. Trump would have ways to allow Mr. Blanche, the president’s former top defense lawyer, to effectively remain as acting attorney general indefinitely.

But the fact that some Republicans, emboldened by Mr. Trump’s declining popularity and alarmed by his lack of concern for their own political fortunes, even temporarily derailed a flagship nominee raised questions about Mr. Trump’s capacity to sustain the dominance over congressional Republicans that has allowed him to exert unmediated control over the department.

Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis object to a deal negotiated by Mr. Blanche and Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers to resolve a lawsuit the president had filed against the I.R.S. The deal gave Mr. Trump, his family and his businesses broad immunity against I.R.S. audits, potentially saving them at least $100 million in penalties. Democrats and even some Republican lawmakers criticized the deal as a giveaway to the Trump family.

The two senators want to narrow the deal in order to advance Mr. Blanche’s nomination, demanding that he put in writing what he acknowledged at his confirmation hearing: that the provision applies to only Mr. Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization, and that it would be limited to audits of past tax returns. But the administration so far has refused.

Mr. Blanche cannot afford a single Republican defection on the Senate Judiciary Committee if he hopes to advance his confirmation to the Senate floor. The opposition of Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis leaves him two short, forcing the committee to scrap its scheduled vote on Thursday.

Mr. Trump would have ways to allow Mr. Blanche, the president’s former top defense lawyer, to effectively remain as acting attorney general indefinitely.

But the fact that some Republicans, emboldened by Mr. Trump’s declining popularity and alarmed by his lack of concern for their own political fortunes, even temporarily derailed a flagship nominee raised questions about Mr. Trump’s capacity to sustain the dominance over congressional Republicans that has allowed him to exert unmediated control over the department.

Mr. Trump’s threat is unusual, in at least two respects. First, there is no guarantee that Republicans will maintain their commanding majority in the upper chamber, or be more willing to accede to his demands after the midterms. Second, pulling Mr. Blanche’s nomination, even temporarily, would demonstrate Mr. Trump’s willingness to advance his personal interests over the institutional stability embodied by a Senate-confirmed attorney general.

The tax deal, tacked onto a Blanche-backed plan to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who said they were victims of unfair prosecution by the government, pushed Senate Republicans to the brink. The fund raised the possibility of the government making gigantic payments to the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and forced Mr. Blanche to declare it was dead, even as he declined to put that commitment in writing. But he gave no ground on the tax immunity deal.

At a closed-door meeting in May, several Republican senators browbeat Mr. Blanche for signing off on a wide-ranging agreement they saw as a vast conflict of interest that would be perceived by voters as an effort to line the pockets of Mr. Trump, his family and his political allies.

Mr. Trump nonetheless cast the objections as a personal vendetta against him. He accused Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Tillis of a sour-grapes revolt aimed at punishing him for withholding his kingmaker endorsement in their contested Republican primaries. Mr. Tillis decided not to seek another term after repeated public attacks from the president, while Mr. Cornyn lost his re-election bid to a challenger backed by Mr. Trump.

“John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting,” the president wrote on Truth Social.