President Trump will nominate Todd Blanche as attorney general, formalizing a role the former criminal defense attorney has held on an acting basis since April. The White House expects to submit paperwork Thursday, setting up what is likely to be a contentious confirmation fight in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Trump announced the decision in a video posted to social media late Wednesday, declaring he would "make him permanent attorney general" and promising to launch the nomination process immediately. The move elevates Blanche despite his most visible recent defeat: the collapse of a nearly $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund that would have compensated people claiming wrongful government persecution.
Blanche spent weeks defending the fund, which stemmed from a settlement of Trump's own lawsuit against the IRS. But Senate Republicans, particularly concerned about payouts potentially flowing to January 6 insurrectionists, pushed back hard enough to kill it. The acting AG shut down the initiative Tuesday, though he pledged the Justice Department would continue enforcing the settlement's ban on IRS audits of Trump's prior returns. Trump has kept his distance from the decision, telling CNN the fund was a "beautiful thing" and suggesting uncertainty about whether it's truly dead.
Blanche's elevation highlights how closely Trump intends to align the Justice Department with his political interests. As Trump's personal attorney, he defended the president through his 2024 hush money conviction and two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith that collapsed without trial. In his deputy attorney general role before taking over the top job, Blanche publicly declared war on federal judges and state bar associations, signaling an aggressive posture toward the judiciary.
The path to confirmation is murky. Blanche cleared the Senate 52 to 46 as deputy AG last year on a strict party-line vote, meaning even minimal Republican defections would sink the nomination. That calculation was made before the primary season, when Trump systematically purged Republicans he deemed insufficiently loyal. Several senators who backed Blanche previously may now fear crossing a president who has shown willingness to punish party members for disloyalty.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the announcement or timing of the formal nomination.
Author James Rodriguez: "Blanche's record suggests a department less interested in law and more interested in Trump's vendetta list, and the Senate has every reason to scrutinize whether that's the kind of attorney general it should confirm."
Comments