Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said Friday he will vote to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general, giving President Donald Trump’s embattled nominee a crucial vote after two other Senate Republicans announced their opposition.

Cassidy’s support appears to give Blanche the 50 votes he needs for confirmation, assuming no other Republicans defect. Republicans hold 53 seats, but Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have said they will vote against Blanche, while Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., remains absent from the Senate — leaving Blanche with exactly 50 Republican votes.

Cassidy had emerged as the pivotal vote after Murkowski announced Friday morning she would oppose Blanche, citing concerns about the politicization of the Justice Department and its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

“This is not a referendum on President Trump,” Cassidy said on the Senate floor Friday. “It is a decision regarding Mr. Blanche in very specific circumstances.”

Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney who is serving as acting attorney general, has faced resistance from several Republicans over his leadership of the Justice Department.

Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., ultimately agreed to support Blanche after he provided assurances that a controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund created as part of a settlement in Trump’s lawsuit over the leak of his tax records had been rescinded and clarified the scope of an agreement shielding Trump and members of his family from certain tax audits.

Cassidy said he was “not entirely satisfied” with where matters stood and expected he could have additional concerns about the department in the future. But he argued that Trump could be “unrelenting” regardless of who held the job, making it more important to have a Senate-confirmed attorney general with greater standing to push back on the president.

Cassidy also pointed to positive reviews of Blanche’s management of the department from current and former prosecutors he consulted, saying critics acknowledged that Blanche knew the law and was a hands-on administrator.

“Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this,” Cassidy said. But, he argued, the choice was between Blanche and another acting attorney general who might not run the department as effectively.

Cassidy has his own complicated history with Trump. He was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial in 2021. In May, Cassidy lost his Republican primary after Trump backed Rep. Julia Letlow, one of his challengers.

Cassidy appeared to grow emotional near the end of his speech as he announced his decision.

“All considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche,” Cassidy said. “I’ll be criticized for this vote. What’s new?” He added that he had…

Todd Blanche was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday by a vote of 12-10, sending President Donald Trump‘s pick to be attorney general to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote.

The vote comes after Blanche, the current acting attorney general, struck a deal with Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who said they are satisfied that the controversial “anti-weaponization fund” is dead. The pair of senators deadlocked the committee by refusing to vote for Blanche until he confirmed the program’s end in writing, despite verbal assurances.

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Tuesday ahead of the vote on Blanche, said they are concerned the fund could still be revived. All of the committee’s Democrats opposed Blanche’s confirmation, while all the Republicans voted in favor.

“This document is a sham,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said, referring to files Blanche posted to social media that he said mark the end of the fund. “It is a sham and a fraud on the Congress.”

Committee approval is a key step in getting Blanche’s nomination across the finish line. But he will still need to receive 50 votes on the Senate floor to be confirmed.

It’s unclear so far if Blanche, who is Trump’s former personal attorney, will clear that bar. Several GOP senators have not committed to voting for Blanche. They include Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Blanche can only afford to lose two GOP votes to be confirmed, given Republicans’ 53-47 majority and the extended medical absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

The Senate appears ready to advance the nomination of Todd Blanche to be the next attorney general after Sen. John Cornyn struck a deal to formally end the “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate President Donald Trump‘s political allies.

A spokeswoman for Cornyn, R-Texas, confirmed the deal Monday in a statement to CNBC.

“Sen. Cornyn has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice, which will be issuing a formal order permanently terminating the anti-weaponization fund and making clear in a binding written document that the scope of the audit settlement is limited to only the plaintiffs, including the President, and the IRS,” the spokesperson, Natalie Yezbick, said.  

Blanche, who is the acting attorney general, posted a set of documents overnight that he said were formally ending the fund that had ground his nomination to a halt. Senators on the Judiciary Committee, including Cornyn and Sen Thom Tillis, R-N.C., had warned the fund could result in payouts to violent rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and vowed to block Blanche until it was dead.

The documents showed Blanche had formally rescinded the order that created the fund in May, while clarifying aspects of the May settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service that created the fund.

The DOJ also clarified aspects of that deal, which created broad immunity from tax audits for the president and members of his family.

The documents say the settlement applies “only retroactively,” meaning it would not protect the president and his family indefinitely from audit. The DOJ also said the order would affect “named parties” in Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, including on release of any claims.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on Blanche’s nomination on Tuesday after delaying a previously planned vote due to concerns about the fund.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is open to “temporarily withdrawing” Todd Blanche‘s nomination as U.S. attorney general until after two Republican holdouts, Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, leave office next year.

Trump floated that possibility in a Truth Social post after excoriating the GOP senators over their continued refusal to back Blanche, the current acting AG, due to lingering concerns about the Department of Justice’s controversial settlement of the president’s lawsuit against his own IRS.

Cornyn quickly replied on X that Trump “is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”

Trump’s post came hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Cornyn and Tillis are both members, postponed a vote on Blanche’s nomination that was planned for Thursday.

“Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it!” Trump wrote. But Cornyn and Tillis are “refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting.”

The president took credit for having “ended” the political careers of Cornyn and Tillis, who are both leaving office in January. Cornyn his Republican primary race in Texas in May, after Trump endorsed his challenger, state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Tillis, of North Carolina, announced last year that he would not seek reelection.

“Remember, both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland, and others, too numerous to mention,” Trump wrote in the post, referring to former President Joe Biden‘s AG pick, who was confirmed 70-30 in the Senate in 2021.

Trump added, “I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.”

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The nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general was at risk on Wednesday as a key Republican senator, for the second time, called off a meeting with Blanche that was meant to address concerns about the controversial settlement of President Donald Trump‘s lawsuit against the IRS.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said he canceled the sit-down with the acting Attorney General Blanche because the Department of Justice has not met his demands to clarify provisions of the settlement that shield Trump and others from IRS audits for tax returns filed before the settlement.

Cornyn, whose vote Blanche needs for his nomination to advance out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters “beats me” when asked why the DOJ has not satisfied his concerns.

“Maybe they think I’m just going to give up or, you know, go along,” Cornyn said, MS NOW reported. “But they’re mistaken.”

Cornyn also said he believed another Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, “is pretty much on the same page as I am.”

“So they better get real, and there’s not much time left,” Cornyn said.

Tillis, like Cornyn, has expressed concerns about another provision in the settlement, the creation of a $1.8 billion fund by the DOJ to compensate people who were purportedly victims of prosecutorial overreach by the department. Blanche said he cancelled that fund after members of Congress harshly criticized it, but Tillis, Cornyn and others have asked for a written guarantee that the fund cannot be revived.

Blanche’s nomination, to get a vote by the full Senate, needs to be advanced by a majority of the Judiciary Committee, which is set to vote Thursday. The committee has 12 Republican members and 10 Democrats. Every Democrat is expected to vote against Blanche.

If Cornyn or Tillis were to vote against Blanche, it would prevent his nomination from moving to the full Senate.

Cornyn said Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told him he needed to know by 4 p.m. ET Wednesday whether the panel’s vote on Blanche’s nomination could proceed as planned Thursday.

“So, we still got a little time, and hopefully they now recognize the seriousness of this,” Cornyn said.

Asked if he would vote “no” on advancing Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate, Cornyn replied, “Well, I’m not prepared to vote ‘yes.’ Let me put it that way.”

The settlement that Cornyn wants amended resolved a lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS over the illegal leaking of his tax records by…

Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Bill Pulte does not appear to be “competent” to serve as acting director of national intelligence, outgoing Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said during an interview Tuesday at CNBC’s CEO Council Summit.

Cassidy, who recently failed to qualify for a runoff in Louisiana’s Republican primary after President Donald Trump endorsed one of his challengers, Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La, said his Senate colleagues were taken aback by the president’s appointment of Pulte as spy chief on Tuesday morning.

“Nothing here suggests he’s competent in the job for which he’s been appointed,” Cassidy said. “That’s just kind of the kind of conversation with my colleagues, like OMG.”

“He has no military background, no intelligence background, he’s going to … keep his other job, and he’s not even sure he has a security clearance,” Cassidy said.

Intelligence community veterans warned that Pulte is ill-prepared for the job and could risk the quality of U.S. intelligence while using the perch to take aim at Trump’s domestic foes.

Cassidy said he’s unsure if he would back Pulte as a DNI nominee, although Pulte has not been officially nominated for the post. Pulte can serve for a limited time as an acting DNI unapproved by the Senate.

“The problem with acting is sometimes people act forever,” Cassidy said, pointing to Julie Su, who served as the acting labor secretary during the Biden administration.

Cassidy is not the first Republican to express concern over Pulte’s qualifications. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who also lost a contested primary last month, said earlier in the day that he does not believe Pulte is qualified.

The Louisiana senator also warned about the possibility that Pulte could stick around for longer than his allowed tenure.

“Sometimes things that are not permanent become quite permanent,” he said.

President Donald Trump‘s appointment of Bill Pulte to be the acting director of national intelligence will place the president’s housing agency attack dog in possession of the country’s most prized secrets, a move that analysts fear could further politicize the office and erode U.S. intelligence gathering.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, was tapped by Trump on Tuesday morning to replace the outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Pulte is not experienced in national intelligence and was an investor and executive of the home building firm PulteGroup before serving in government. As DNI, Pulte will be placed at the top of the U.S.’ sprawling intelligence community and have access to the country’s most sensitive national secrets.

That lack of experience and Pulte’s penchant for using information from the housing agencies to gin up prosecutions of Trump’s political rivals has alarmed intelligence analysts and federal lawmakers alike, who warn Pulte could weaponize the office against the president’s domestic political rivals and erode trust in U.S. intelligence.

“It’s the latest example of some of the amateurish, absurd assignments that Trump has made in the second term,” said Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and National Security Council official under the Obama administration who now runs the firm Global Situation Room. “It opens up the very real possibility we could see our intelligence structures and systems further eroded, and the role of intelligence used in more inappropriate and even illegal ways.”

Bruen said the move will elevate Pulte from receiving “cafeteria-type sensitive information to the crown jewels of our most protected secrets.”

That includes access to highly sensitive intelligence collection efforts and information about human intelligence sources and surveillance tools.

The White House, when asked about concerns about Pulte’s qualifications and whether he might weaponize the U.S. intelligence community, defended Trump’s choice.

“The President chooses the best and most talented people to serve in his Cabinet,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said by email. “That is why this Administration has achieved record successes for the American people. Bill Pulte is a great selection and he will do a great job on behalf of the American people.”

In his role atop the housing apparatus, Pulte used his access to mortgage records to refer some top Trump enemies for prosecution.

The Justice Department charged New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who previously prosecuted Trump, with bank fraud, a charge that was subsequently dismissed. Pulte’s criminal referral of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook on similar allegations prompted Trump to attempt to fire her, a case that is still pending before the Supreme Court.