President Donald Trump has nominated Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer, to officially take over the role of attorney general, the top law enforcement position in the United States.
Currently, Blanche serves as attorney general in an interim capacity. But the Federal Vacancies Reform Act generally caps such temporary leaders at 210 days.
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As of Monday, he has served in the role for roughly 67 days, since the April 2 firing of his predecessor, Pam Bondi. Naming a nominee, however, could allow Trump to legally extend the interim period beyond 210 days.
Blanche’s nomination sets him up for what is expected to be a heated Senate confirmation hearing.
But it will not be Blanche’s first time enduring a Senate grilling. Last year, on March 5, he was successfully confirmed as deputy attorney general in a party-line vote of 52 to 46, with all the Senate’s Democrats in opposition.
Republicans hold a narrow 53-seat majority in the 100-person chamber.
Still, the past year has raised new questions about Blanche’s ability to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ), a key law enforcement body in charge of investigations, prosecutions and the federal prison system, among other duties.
While Senate confirmations only require a simple majority, there are concerns that Blanche’s tenure so far may have divided Republicans in the chamber.
From private practice to government
Blanche first became a part of Trump’s inner circle in 2023, when Trump faced a series of four criminal indictments, two on the state level and two federal.
One of those indictments pertained to an alleged hush-money agreement Trump struck with former adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors argued he had attempted to conceal the hush-money payments through illegal means, in an attempt to protect his successful 2016 presidential bid.
Trump was ultimately found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents.
It was the first time in history that a US president had been convicted of a crime, though Trump did not face a fine or a custodial sentence. A judge handed down an “unconditional discharge”, which waives any penalty beyond the conviction.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has sought to have the conviction overturned.
Blanche was part of Trump’s defence team during the trial, and he remained in Trump’s orbit as the Republican leader launched his 2024 campaign for re-election.
He was one of a handful of former personal lawyers for Trump who ultimately joined his second administration, including Emil Bove, now an appeals court judge, and Lindsey Halligan, who served briefly as an interim US attorney.
But since Trump began his second term in January 2025, there have been concerns that the Justice Department has lost its prosecutorial independence. The department has publicly followed a longstanding norm barring political interests from guiding its investigations and indictments.
Blanche has been central to some of those concerns. In his role as deputy attorney general, Blanche waded into some of the Justice Department’s most controversial moments of the past year.
For instance, in July he held an in-person interview with convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell to ask her about the investigation of her former partner, the late Jeffrey Epstein, whose case had received renewed public scrutiny under Trump.
Questions had arisen about how much powerful figures like Trump knew about Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring, and the Maxwell interview was widely seen as an attempt to defuse criticism.
After testifying in the Blanche interview that Trump had committed no wrongdoing, Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas, prompting outcry.
Anger at the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files reportedly contributed to Bondi’s abrupt departure in April.
A Republican split
Since taking over for Bondi on an interim basis, Blanche has continued to be a target of bipartisan criticism.
Last month, he was one of the architects behind a controversial settlement to end a $10bn lawsuit Trump had filed against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a part of his own executive branch.
Critics had denounced the lawsuit as a conflict of interest, given Trump’s influence over the Justice Department lawyers representing the IRS.
But the settlement was no less divisive. It granted Trump and his family immunity from any future IRS tax audits and set up a $1.8bn “anti-weaponisation” fund, designed to compensate victims of government “lawfare”.
Trump has used terms like “weaponisation” and “lawfare” to describe indictments against his supporters, including the rioters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
While testifying before Congress, Blanche refused to rule out using the “anti-weaponisation” funds to give payouts to January 6 participants who attacked police officers. But he later told a House of Representatives committee that the fund was “not moving forward”, amid bipartisan backlash.
Since Blanche was named interim attorney general, the Justice Department has also filed a controversial second indictment against James Comey, a Trump critic and former FBI director.
The case centres on a message Comey posted on social media spelled in seashells, that prosecutors allege was a threat to Trump. Critics have widely blasted the indictment as a thinly veiled attack on Comey’s First Amendment rights to free speech.
As news of Trump’s nomination spread on Monday, Democrats quickly issued statements calling on the Senate to vote down Blanche’s appointment.
“Todd Blanche doesn’t work for the American people. He works for one man,” said Xavier Becerra, the leading Democratic candidate in the California governor’s race.
“He weaponized the DOJ to go after Trump’s enemies. He created a slush fund for Trump’s allies. He botched the Epstein files. He turned the nation’s top law enforcement office into a personal favor factory. The Senate must reject this nomination.”
But the Senate’s Republican leadership has rallied around Blanche’s nomination.
“Today, the Senate received President Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche to be United States Attorney General,” Senator Chuck Grassley wrote.
“I’ve worked well with Acting Attorney General Blanche for more than a year and appreciate his commitment to transparency and support for law enforcement.”
It remains to be seen whether some of Blanche’s Republican critics in the Senate will fall in line with the party leadership, though. Outgoing Senator Thom Tillis, for instance, has called on Blanche to condemn January 6 rioters who attacked police officers as a condition for his confirmation vote.
