Trump’s former personal attorney Todd Blanche confirmed to be Attorney General on slim vote
TheGrio...
Blanche’s confirmation occurred early Saturday morning as two Republican Senators opposed his nomination, while Democrats voted along party lines.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was confirmed by the Senate early Saturday morning to become the country’s next AG.
In a narrow 50-49 vote, Blanche, President Trump’s former personal attorney, moves from being the Justice Department’s second-highest-ranking official to its official leader.
All Senate Democrats opposed Blanche’s confirmation, joined by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. His nomination advanced after Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana announced his support, despite concerns about several of Blanche’s decisions while he was acting attorney general, including shielding Trump from specific IRS audits and lawsuits targeting Trump’s political opponents.
Despite those marks, Cassidy said Blanche was better than any other acting official at leading the department under Trump and his current administration.
“Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this,” Cassidy said on Friday. “But the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche. It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”
Blanche’s confirmation came after weeks of contention over a now-shuttered $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, which was created in large part through a settlement between Trump and the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The fund was intended to compensate individuals who claimed the government unfairly targeted them.
Until the Anti-Weaponization Fund was shuttered, two outgoing Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, held up Blanche’s nomination until he confirmed that the fund would not be enacted.
As theGrio previously reported, Black lawmakers questioned whether Blanche was fit to lead the Justice Department following Pam Bondi’s tenure. Bondi was removed from the position by Trump in April.
“The attorney general’s client isn’t the president, it’s the American people,” Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said in July. “You’ve been protecting one man for most of your career, for years and years and years. He has demonstrated himself to put undue pressure—this is why he was impeached. This is why he was criminally indicted.”
NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson also criticized Blanche’s potential appointment, citing the Anti-Weaponization Fund and his work in not prosecuting anyone implicated in thousands of files related to convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein. Blanche’s handling of the Epstein case has drawn bipartisan scrutiny, with several survivors of Epstein urging lawmakers not to push Blanche’s confirmation through. Additionally, Blanche has come under scrutiny for his handling of the Justice Department and for whether it served the country’s best interests as an independent entity or Trump’s.
Under Blanche’s watch, the Justice Department has either continued investigations into James Comey and Letitia James, known political opponents of Trump and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Todd Blanche has used his position to carry out the personal and political bidding of the president, at the literal expense of the American people. From supporting Trump’s unlawful $1.8 billion slush fund to covering up the Epstein Files, he is unqualified and cannot be trusted to prioritize or protect us,” Johnson said. “We’re at a pivotal point in our nation, where we face attack from every angle, and we must stand against unprincipled, so-called leaders who are personally loyal to a corrupt president.”
Blanche first joined Trump’s legal team in 2023, representing the president in multiple criminal cases involving hush money payments, classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
After Trump returned to office, Blanche was nominated to serve as deputy attorney general before later becoming acting attorney general following Pam Bondi’s departure.