Senate Republicans voted Saturday to confirm Todd Blanche as the new full attorney general, overcoming stiff headwinds President Trump created for his own nominee and installing a new top cop at the Justice Department.
The 50-49 vote wasn’t assured until Friday morning, when Sen. Bill Cassidy, who has been a thorn for Mr. Trump, said he would back Mr. Blanche. Two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voted with Democrats to oppose him.
Mr. Trump’s attempt to create an “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate “victims” of the Biden Justice Department almost sank Mr. Blanche, who as acting attorney general signed off on the court settlement that established the $1.776 billion fund.
Mr. Blanche spent the ensuing weeks backtracking from the fund — even as Mr. Trump continued to push for it, creating new worries about his pick.
It was only after Mr. Blanche signed new orders declaring the fund dead as far as DOJ was concerned, and clarifying the extent of a tax crimes immunity deal he gave Mr. Trump, that the issue was defused.
Mr. Blanche has been deputy attorney general since spring 2025 and has been acting as chief since Mr. Trump ousted Pam Bondi in March.
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Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Blanche, 51, has earned the top post with his management of the department and the priorities he’s pursued, including combatting fraud in government programs and ramping up basic crime-fighting.
“America is safer with Todd Blanche at the helm of the Justice Department,” Mr. Grassley said.
Democrats pronounced themselves horrified at the prospect of Mr. Blanche, who was a defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, getting the promotion.
They predicted he would serve Mr. Trump rather than the country at large.
“This nation deserves an attorney general who loves the Constitution more than he loves the president. Sadly, for our nation, Todd Blanche is not that person,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin, who led the opposition to the nomination.
Mr. Blanche, in his confirmation hearing, said he has to straddle both worlds.
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“My obligation is to the American people and the rule of law. That being said, I am a member of the Cabinet of the president of the United States,” he said.
Republicans said that dichotomy would affect whomever Mr. Trump nominated, so it didn’t make sense to hold it against Mr. Blanche.
Mr. Cassidy, the senator whose support put Mr. Blanche over the finish line, said elevating him from acting to full attorney general may even help him withstand some of the president’s demands to investigate political opponents.
“I am realistic that Mr. Trump can be unrelenting on this, but this is true no matter who the attorney general is. This is the rationale for having a Senate-confirmed attorney general with more leverage to push back,” the Louisiana senator said.
Mr. Trump advocated vociferously for Mr. Blanche.
“You’re not going to find better than Todd Blanche,” he told reporters Thursday. “Anybody voting against him would be doing a great disservice to the country.”
At one point he suggested that if enough Republicans didn’t back Mr. Blanche, he would withdraw the nomination and leave Mr. Blanche still in charge as acting attorney general until next Congress, when he hoped turnover among lawmakers would ease the path.
Republicans told him it was a bad gamble.
Democrats, in opposing Mr. Blanche, tried to tarnish him with the Epstein files, saying he was protecting Mr. Trump by shielding the release of some FBI files tying the two men together.
Mr. Durbin repeatedly pressed Mr. Blanche to meet with victims of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Blanche said he couldn’t meet directly with those who have lawyers, but would welcome any leads they wanted to share for further investigations.
Concerns over the weaponization fund were more bipartisan, with Mr. Trump’s repeated championing of the idea — even as Mr. Blanche was proclaiming it dead — fueling suspicion that the president was trying to pull a fast one.
Democrats pointed to a federal judge’s ruling that DOJ and Mr. Trump’s lawyers had colluded to create the fund. That judge called it a potential “fraud” perpetrated on her court.
“In the history of the Department of Justice, no senior official has ever been even accused of a fraud upon the court. And we’re advancing this guy before that question is settled?” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse challenged colleagues ahead of the committee’s vote of approval for Mr. Blanche.
A liberal activist group has also lodged an ethics complaint against Mr. Blanche in the New York bar.
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