Overview
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed a formal order on Sunday that rescinded the May 18 order creating the roughly $1.8 billion anti‑weaponization fund and said the Fund never became operational.
- Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis said they were satisfied by the written rescission and the two Republican holdouts agreed to vote to advance Blanche’s nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
- The DOJ order also narrowed the settlement’s tax‑audit language by limiting audit protections to claims that were open at the time of the May agreement and not to future IRS examinations.
- Federal judges have already criticized the original settlement as improper self‑dealing and Trump’s lawyers have filed appeals, so litigation and court scrutiny of the agreement will continue despite the rescission.
- The move eases Blanche’s path to confirmation but leaves political risks because President Trump has signaled he may seek other ways to revive similar protections and the issue remains a point of factional tension within the GOP.