Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed during testimony before a House subcommittee on Tuesday that the Trump administration is backing down from establishing a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to benefit allies of President Donald Trump following heavy pressure from Republican congressional leadership.

“Look, we’re not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche said in an exchange with ranking Democrat Rep. Grace Meng. “The reasons for the fund is something that President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact that there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them. The reasons for the fund, I think, were — remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund.”

“Not moving forward ever?” Meng pressed.

“Correct,” Blanche said.

But near the conclusion of the hearing, Blanche repeatedly declined to put his commitment in writing. 

“I don’t know what the purpose of putting something in writing. I’m telling you what we’re doing, meaning, like, what’s the — why do I need to put something in writing if I’m telling you what we’re doing?”

Meng noted the original settlement announcement establishing the fund was in writing and that Blanche wasn’t technically under oath in the hearing. 

“I think a lot of Americans, both sides of the aisle, are concerned about it, and it would restore a lot of trust about this issue,” Meng said. 

“I’m not committing to doing anything in writing. Ok, I mean, I’ll take it under advisement,” Blanche said.

The Justice Department currently faces multiple lawsuits over the fund where it will likely need to put such a commitment in writing in order to have the cases dismissed.

Though that still might not resolve the recent decision by the federal judge in Florida who originally oversaw Trump’s Internal Revenue Service lawsuit to press for answers from DOJ over whether the administration may have committed a fraud against her court, given Blanche explicitly said Tuesday that the department is not rescinding the original settlement agreement.

The order from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams followed a filing by a bipartisan group of former federal judges requesting that she reopen the case to probe whether the creation of the settlement — as well as an addendum that precluded the IRS from investigating Trump and his family’s tax returns — amounted to unlawful collusion. Williams ordered the attorneys to file a response before June 12

The fund was created in exchange for Trump agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS as well as two civil claims for $230 million related to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

A federal judge in Virginia on Friday ordered a temporary freeze on any payments coming from the fund as she considers arguments in a lawsuit brought by a former Jan. 6 prosecutor to block the fund permanently. 

Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro pressed Blanche on whether the administration pulling back from the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” meant the DOJ similarly planned to rescind the IRS settlement agreement and the separate order that barred the government from auditing past tax returns of Trump, his family and his businesses. 

“The only document I said we’re not moving forward on today is the first document identified, which is the which is the anti-weaponization fund,” Blanche said.

Blanche repeatedly pushed back on DeLauro characterizing the IRS addendum as “blanket immunity” from tax inquiries. 

“It’s not immunity,” Blanche said. “What it says is like, like anytime the IRS settles with an individual taxpayer or another company as part of the settlement, it’s standard, it’s typical for to get rid of past ongoing audits. It’s not a forward-looking document, it’s nothing that gives any sort of immunity in the future to the president or his family or his organizations, and so by you saying that, it’s just it’s not true.” 

Blanche’s announcement came after furious Senate Republicans made it clear to him that they would not be able to pass Trump’s legislative agenda until this issue was resolved and even raised concerns about losing in the upcoming, high-stakes midterm elections as a result of the controversial settlement fund.

The Justice Department issued a statement on Monday saying the department would comply with a federal judge’s order that had only temporarily paused establishment of the fund amid ongoing litigation.

The reversal marks a significant defeat for Blanche, who had spent the past two weeks seeking to defend the $1.776 billion fund while refusing to rule out the prospect that settlements could be paid out to defendants who joined in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — including those who had been convicted for assaulting law enforcement.