Republican holdouts say they will back Todd Blanche for attorney general

Move comes after Blanche gives senators written assurance he will drop Trump’s $1.8bn anti-weaponization fund Two Republican senators who threatened to block Todd Blanche’s bid to permanently become US attorney general announced they will advance his nomination after he said in writing that a planned $1.8bn slush fund for Donald Trump’s allies was dead. The US Senate judiciary committee is due to vote on Tuesday on whether to approve the nomination of Blanche, who is already acting attorney general, and send it to the wider Senate for a vote. Outgoing lawmakers John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, two key holdouts on the committee who have repeatedly clashed with Trump over the past year, said their concerns were resolved after a “successful negotiation of a legally enforceable document”, which was released by Blanche late on Sunday. The document formally ends the $1.8bn “anti‑weaponization fund”, and makes clear that Trump and his family will not receive indefinite protection from audits of future tax filings. Both controversial prospects arose from an agreement reached as part of a settlement in a lawsuit Trump filed against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the unauthorized leak o