The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general in a razor‑thin overnight vote, installing President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer as the nation’s top law‑enforcement official after a contentious fight, according to reports.
Most Democrats opposed the nomination, joined by some Republican senators, AP reported. Axios added that the Senate minority leader was absent for health reasons. A Republican senator announced he would back Blanche, a move that cleared a path to confirmation, outlets reported.
The late‑night drama capped weeks of friction over Blanche’s closeness to the White House and what that could mean for the Justice Department’s independence, AP reported. Blanche had already been serving as acting attorney general since April, after the previous attorney general left, the AP said. Axios similarly noted he had been in the job in an acting capacity this spring.
According to the Associated Press, Blanche put in writing that the Justice Department would abandon a proposed compensation fund tied to a settlement related to Trump and would scale back provisions related to tax audits involving Trump and his family. That assurance helped ease concerns among some Republicans. Both outlets reported that some GOP senators moved to advance Blanche after those commitments.
Axios also reported that, at one point during the standoff, Trump said he could keep Blanche in the job as acting attorney general for months if Republican holdouts blocked him in committee. With the floor vote settled, Blanche shifts from acting to confirmed and now formally takes over the department he has been running day to day.
AP noted that this makes Blanche the second confirmed attorney general during Trump’s current presidency. The close vote and cross‑party objections signal that congressional oversight of the department is likely to stay intense, and any major policy moves could draw immediate scrutiny.
Why it matters
The attorney general sets priorities for federal law enforcement — from how the government tackles violent crime and drug trafficking to how it enforces civil rights laws. Blanche’s confirmation means there’s no ambiguity about who is in charge, which could speed decisions on investigations and policy changes. For regular people, those choices can affect community safety, civil rights protections, and the way high‑profile public‑corruption cases are handled.