Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche exits a meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was dispatched to Capitol Hill to present details of President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion fund to compensate alleged victims of “weaponization” by the Biden DOJ.
According to reports, the meeting with Senate Republicans “did not go well.”
CNN’s Manu Raju reported that Blanche faced “stiff resistance.” He added that he was “told most senators voiced opposition to the fund — hardly any came to its defense.”
“Blanche struggled Thursday to quash GOP concerns over a newly announced $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund,” Politico reports. “Blanche met privately with Senate Republicans as the administration and GOP leaders tried to defuse the controversy over the fund.”
“Nearly 2-hour meeting with Acting AG Todd Blanche and Senate Republicans was incredibly hostile, per multiple attendees,” Punchbowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio reported.
“As many as 25 GOP senators spoke (this is very rare for these meetings), all in opposition to weaponization fund,” he noted.
For their part, Republicans “pitched specific ideas such as dictating how the 5 commissioners are chosen,” and “not allowing people convicted of violence against cops to be eligible for a payout.”
One prominent Senate Republican, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, confronted Blanche “about the weaponization fund at the Senate GOP meeting,” reported Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett.
“Meeting being described as a ‘s——’ per people familiar with it,” Everett noted. He added that the senator “hates the fund” and called it “stupid on stilts” earlier today.
Not only did the meeting not go well, the D.C. Examiner’s Ramsey Touchberry said that he hasn’t heard that any Republican changed their minds. The D.C. Examiner’s David Sivak described the Senate GOP as “super tight-lipped after the Blanche meeting.”