The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as Attorney General early Saturday, permanently placing President Donald Trump’s former personal criminal defense attorney in charge of the Justice Department. Critics argued the transfer of authority was an unprecedented conflict of interest; the administration’s allies insisted it was a straightforward exercise of presidential appointment power.
Blanche was confirmed 50-49. Senators. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined every Democrat in opposing the nomination. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was absent due to his ongoing health issues.
Blanche has served as acting Attorney General since Trump fired Pam Bondi in April. Before that, he was Deputy Attorney General, confirmed in March without any Republican defections. His latest confirmation was considerably more difficult.
Republicans raised concerns on three fronts: the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files; a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, established as part of a settlement of Trump’s lawsuit over his tax returns, that critics feared would compensate January 6 defendants; and an IRS immunity provision shielding Trump and his family from future audits, a measure with no clear statutory basis that drew objections from tax law practitioners across the political spectrum.
Blanche declared the fund “dead” at his July hearing, but Senate Judiciary ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL) argued the written assurances were legally meaningless: unsigned by all settlement parties, they were unenforceable under basic contract law and could be revived after confirmation without any legal barrier.
Murkowski remained unconvinced:
“The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration. I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.”
Collins also opposed Blanche, arguing that the Justice Department had become increasingly political and pointing to objections from more than 1,200 former department employees.
With Collins and Murkowski voting no, the nomination came down to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), himself a politically diminished figure after voting to convict Trump on the January 6 impeachment charge and losing his primary in May to a Trump-endorsed challenger. Cassidy accused Blanche of showing “poor judgment” in approving the fund and the IRS protections, but ultimately concluded that a Senate-confirmed Attorney General was preferable to leaving the department under an acting official. The vote was a pragmatic concession from a senator who no longer has a political future to protect. Cassidy said:
“Even critics admit that Mr. Blanche knows the law and is a hands-on administrator. He has instructed U.S. attorneys to focus on violent crime, human and drug trafficking, and fraud in programs like Medicare and Medicaid.”
Blanche joined Trump’s legal team in 2023, leaving a partnership at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. He represented Trump in the hush-money trial, helped win the Supreme Court’s landmark presidential immunity ruling, and secured dismissal of the classified-documents indictment in Florida. Trump later tapped him as Deputy Attorney General, saying he would fix a justice system “broken” by years of political weaponization.
As Attorney General, Blanche now holds permanent authority over an institution he has already spent months reshaping. The confirmation changes little operationally, as he has been running the department since April, but it removes the political vulnerability of acting status and gives him a freer hand. Whether the written assurances he made to secure Republican votes constrain him in practice, or whether they dissolve the moment the Senate leaves town for recess, is the question that will define his tenure.
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