WASHINGTON — Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) didn’t seem too impressed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s answers to his questions during Blanche’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Cornyn asked Blanche about the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” he created for President Donald Trump as part of a sham “settlement agreement” stemming from a Trump lawsuit against his own government. Blanche repeated his past statements about the fund “not moving forward” even though, as Cornyn noted, the document states that it can be modified “only with the written agreement” of the parties involved. Blanche has steadfastly refused to put his statements about the fund’s demise in writing. “We needed to set the record straight there because I think some people are under the impression that just because he says, ‘Well, we’re not going to pursue the weaponization fund,’ that it couldn’t be revived at a later time,” Cornyn told reporters after the hearing. In other words, Cornyn is refusing to take Blanche’s word that the fund is dead. “He’s putting the best spin on it he can, but I can read and so can you, and I think his interpretation is not necessarily the only one,” Cornyn said. Sen. John Cornyn at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Tom Williams via Getty ImagesThe Texas Republican, who recently lost a primary election to a Trump-backed challenger, is one of a handful of possible “no” votes on Blanche’s nomination, but he told HuffPost he wouldn’t make a decision about the vote until later. Another retiring senator and occasional critic of the White House, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), merely asked Blanche for help writing legislation to kill the fund. “Could I get your commitment,” Tillis asked, “to maybe provide us with some technical assistance on what that language would look like?”“Absolutely,” Blanche said. (The Senate has already voted down proposals to kill the payout scheme.) Blanche infuriated Republican senators when he announced the faux settlement in May, and in response to their anger, he claimed at a subsequent hearing that the fund wouldn’t happen. But the Justice Department still fought a lawsuit to block the fund, and Blanche said the Justice Department would not undo another part of the so-called settlement granting Trump immunity from any ongoing tax audits. This week, a federal judge excoriated the administration for essentially colluding with the president to not oppose his lawsuit in order to grant him preferential tax treatment and a billion-dollar slush fund he could use to pay off Jan. 6 rioters. But the judge said the actual contents of the deal were outside the purview of her court, and the Justice Department told HuffPost Blanche’s order granting Trump tax immunity remains in effect. Under questioning from Cornyn, Blanche claimed the tax deal only benefits the parties to Trump’s lawsuit — namely Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization. But Cornyn pointed out the actual text of Trump’s special tax break says it applies to the plaintiffs “or related or affiliated individuals,” including “related companies, affiliates and subsidiaries” and in connection with any matters pertaining to “Lawfare and/or Weaponization.”“It’s kind of a mess,” Cornyn said. “All I can tell you is right now, his claim that the weaponization fund is a dead doornail is not a characterization that I agree with.”