WASHINGTON — Todd Blanche, former personal lawyer to US President Donald Trump, has been narrowly confirmed as the United States attorney general, becoming the country’s top law enforcement official after a closely contested Senate vote.
The Senate confirmed Blanche by 50 votes to 49, with Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joining Democrats in opposing his nomination. Senator Bill Cassidy cast the decisive vote in Blanche’s favour.
The confirmation ends a prolonged standoff between Senate Republicans and the Trump administration over Blanche, who had been serving as acting attorney general since April following the departure of Pam Bondi.
Blanche faced scrutiny during his confirmation hearings over his handling of the release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his role in developing Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponisation” fund.
The proposed fund was intended to compensate people who claimed they had been politically persecuted by the US government. Critics, including Murkowski, expressed concern that it could benefit people prosecuted for their involvement in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Facing opposition from Republican senators, Blanche eventually pledged to abandon the fund. However, questions remain over whether that commitment would prevent Trump from reviving a similar initiative under a different name.
Murkowski said she lacked confidence that Blanche would be willing to restrain what she described as the administration’s “worst impulses”. She also warned about the increasing politicisation of the Justice Department.
Collins, meanwhile, expressed concerns about Blanche’s involvement in resolving Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, but ultimately said she trusted him to provide the president with candid legal advice.
Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial following the 6 January Capitol riot, said his decision was based specifically on Blanche rather than on the president.
“This is not a referendum on President Trump, it is a decision regarding Mr Blanche, in very specific circumstances,” Cassidy said before the vote.
He acknowledged that Trump ultimately determines the direction of the Justice Department but argued that Senate confirmation would give Blanche greater leverage to challenge the administration when necessary.
After his confirmation, Blanche said he was “deeply honoured” by the trust and confidence Trump had placed in him.
Blanche previously served as Trump’s lead lawyer during the former president’s 2024 New York hush-money case before joining the Justice Department as deputy attorney general. He assumed its interim leadership in April after Bondi was fired.
