Senate Confirms Todd Blanche as Attorney General by a 50-49 Vote

The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general by a vote of 50 to 49 in the early hours of Saturday, one of its last votes before leaving for the August recess. According to NPR, the vote came after days in which the result was in doubt, as the Washington Examiner described it, over whether Republican leaders had the votes to install the former personal lawyer of President Donald Trump as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. The Daily Wire reported the session ended around 4 a.m.

Every Democrat voted no, as did two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The deciding support came from Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who gave it on Friday. Cassidy acknowledged concerns about Blanche’s judgment in exempting the president from IRS audits, NPR reported, but said the real choice was between Blanche and another acting attorney general who might run the department less effectively. The Daily Wire reported that he said Blanche “is not perfect” and, in the Daily Wire’s summary, argued that a Senate-confirmed attorney general would have more power to resist political pressure.

Blanche has led the Justice Department in an acting capacity since Pam Bondi left the job. He was Trump’s personal attorney, hired in 2023, before Trump nominated him as deputy attorney general, NPR reported.

The confirmation fight turned largely on a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that grew out of a settlement between Trump and the IRS over the leaked tax returns. The fund was meant to compensate people who said the government had been used against them. Cornyn and Thom Tillis of North Carolina held up the Judiciary Committee vote until they received written assurances the fund was dead, according to NPR. The Washington Examiner reported that Blanche negotiated language to reassure holdout senators. In a statement dated Aug. 2, NPR reported, Blanche wrote that the order creating the fund “is rescinded and shall have no force or effect.”

Critics were not satisfied. Collins said the Justice Department “has become increasingly political,” the Daily Wire reported, pointing to an IRS order shielding the Trump family and its businesses from audits as well as the fund. Murkowski echoed those concerns and criticized the department’s handling of the release of files on Jeffrey Epstein. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, said Blanche acts as if he is still Trump’s personal lawyer, NPR reported. Legal experts and Democrats also questioned whether the Justice Department’s written assurances would hold up in court, because not every party to the settlement, Trump included, signed them.

Trump has called the fund a “positive,” NPR reported, and Democrats and legal experts have questioned whether it is gone for good.

Blanche said he was deeply honored by the president’s trust, the Daily Wire reported. His first weeks in the permanent job will test how he handles the cases that have drawn the most scrutiny. NPR noted that under his acting leadership the department charged former FBI Director James Comey and brought a case against the Southern Poverty Law Center, and that several high-profile prosecutions have since faltered.