Donald Trump’s nominee for United States Attorney General, Todd Blanche, a former lawyer who previously cleared the president of several corruption charges, will withdraw the controversial proposal to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate those who felt persecuted by the justice system during Democrat Joe Biden’s administration. Blanche has also committed to limiting the tax immunity of the president and his family. The move aims to convince reluctant Republican senators to support his nomination as head of the Department of Justice.
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The instrumentalization fund is a tool promoted by Trump to favor his friends and allies. The fund would have allowed rioters who participated in the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault to claim compensation from the Administration for prosecuting them. The creation of the fund arose from an agreement between Trump and the Department of Justice to end the $10 billion lawsuit the Republican had filed against the IRS, the equivalent of the Tax Agency in the United States, following the leak of his tax returns. The Republican leader withdrew the lawsuit in exchange for the IRS’s commitment not to audit him or his family members ever again and announced the creation of the compensation fund.
My team and I have met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions. We have enjoyed good faith discussions, and as a result issue the following order and update with regard to the May IRS settlement. The… pic.twitter.com/U6hs15kw2D
— Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) August 3, 2026
Blanche attached two documents to his post. One was an order signed and dated Sunday officially withdrawing the instrumentalization fund. “The Attorney General’s Order of May 18, 2026, establishing the Instrumentalization Fund (‘Fund’) is hereby revoked and shall have no force or effect.” The other document, unsigned and undated, commits to restricting tax immunity for Trump and his circle.
The post aims to convince conservative senators who last week threatened to block Blanche’s appointment unless they received guarantees for the permanent withdrawal of the controversial instrumentalization fund. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, and Thom Tillis (North Carolina), among others, publicly stated they would vote against the nominee for Attorney General. The legislators demanded written guarantees from the Department of Justice for the formal cancellation of the $1.8 billion fund to compensate those who consider themselves unjustly persecuted by the previous Administration.
Blanche’s appointment is controversial in the United States. He was a partner at the law firm defending Trump in the case involving bribes to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. The lawyer represented the New York magnate in the trial where he was charged with 34 counts of falsifying accounting records to conceal alleged payments to the actress, for which Trump was ultimately convicted. Blanche managed to end other federal cases brought by Jack Smith, the special prosecutor under the Biden Administration. Subsequently, Trump appointed Blanche as interim Attorney General after Pam Bondi was dismissed due to her chaotic handling of the Epstein file release. Blanche was responsible for coordinating and selecting the declassification of documents related to the financier accused of creating a sexual exploitation network, who allegedly took his own life in a New York jail while awaiting trial.
The occupant of the Oval Office has been pressuring rebellious Republican senators over the weekend to confirm Blanche. Trump has posted several messages on his social network Truth threatening to reinstate the $1.8 billion fund if Cornyn and Tillis do not endorse Blanche’s appointment. Additionally, he accused the two Republican senators of opposing Blanche simply because he withdrew his support from them in favor of other Republican candidates in the primaries for the midterm elections to be held in three months.
“John Cornyn never had issues with the so-called Fund, which will not benefit me, but the great American patriots who were persecuted like dogs and whose lives were unjustly and illegally destroyed by the corrupt Joe Biden Administration, until I decided to back and support his opponent in the Texas Republican primaries, who easily won the nomination for the United States Senate,” wrote the U.S. president through his favorite social platform, for which he has started charging for privileged access to posts.
Trump had already withdrawn the instrumentalization or compensation fund for his allies and friends but threatened to revive it. A judge also temporarily halted the creation of the fund. Blanche himself verbally assured during his Senate confirmation hearing that he was against the fund, but legislators demanded guarantees.
“Perhaps there has never been a group of people so mistreated in the history of our nation. They still suffer, many have been ruined, and I felt they should receive compensation for what was done to them. I waived any payment for myself, which would have been considerable, even for the illegal and unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago, my residence in Florida, despite many legal experts and others, including John Cornyn, calling the act an outrageous and disgusting example of ‘instrumentalization of power’ against me,” he added in the Truth post.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on his nomination this Tuesday. Blanche’s maneuver is expected to expedite his confirmation before the August recess begins.
Republican senators not only demanded guarantees for the withdrawal of the instrumentalization fund but also requested that the scope of the tax immunity granted by the IRS to Trump, his family, and businesses be limited in exchange for withdrawing the $10 billion lawsuit. The agreement has been criticized for a potential conflict of interest because Trump is suing the Administration he now leads and in which he has placed some of the lawyers who defended him in the past.
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