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US Senate confirms Trump loyalist Todd Blanche as new AG
Republicans dropped their opposition and confirmed President Donald Trump's former defense lawyer to a Cabinet position. Now, Todd Blanche will act as the nation's top law enforcement officer.
https://p.dw.com/p/5IUeD Advertisement The US Senate has narrowly approved President Donald Trump 's nominee for the job of attorney general, making Todd Blanche the nation's top law enforcement officer in an early morning vote on Saturday.
The Republican-controlled body delivered a 50-49 vote to confirm the controversial Trump loyalist.
Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy was the last-minute convert this time, supplying the crucial deciding vote after his colleagues Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine jumped ship to join the chamber's Democrats in voting against Blanche's appointment.
In explaining her opposition, Murkowski said the country was in need of an attorney general "who will check the worst impulses of this administration."
On the Senate floor, Cassidy outlined his own conversion, saying he believed Blanche's relationship with Trump would make him effective at pushing back against Trump's demands.
Blanche, a former federal prosecutor who was Trump's personal defense lawyer and had been serving as acting attorney general since April, wrote on X, "I am deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me to lead the Department of Justice as our great nation's 88th attorney general."
There is great concern that Trump sees Blanche as "his lawyer," something that he has often openly expressed the need for in the position of attorney general, which is supposed to be independent.
"The attorney general is supposed to be the people's lawyer," Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday.
"Mr. Blanche," added Durbin, the Committee's ranking Democrat, "continues to operate as the president's personal lawyer, treating the Justice Department like a law firm serving one client — the president."
On Saturday, Durbin said it would be a "serious mistake" to give Blanche control at the DOJ, "If there is ever a moment in history when we need an attorney general above reproach, who is clearly dedicated to ending corruption, even at the highest level of our government, it's right now."
During his time in office, Trump has often railed against attorneys general for not being aggressive enough in pursuing his agenda — most often when it is tied to retribution against his political opponents .
Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr and Pam Bondi all fell out of the president's good graces for failing to fully satisfy his legal desires.
Blanche is seen as a staunch ally who has no qualms doing the president's bidding.
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Blanche previously defended Trump against criminal charges over the falsification of business records with the intent of hiding an affair with an adult movie actress, as well as another for the mishandling of classified documents in his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Both cases were dropped after Trump won reelection in 2024.
During his time at the DOJ, Blanche has handled portions of the case against deceased sex offender and presidential friend Jeffrey Epstein — most prominently overseeing the release of millions of documents tied to the case , as well as the transfer of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to a more comfortable, minimum-security federal prison in Texas after he personally met with her.
Under Blanche and his predecessor Bondi , the DOJ has lost thousands of employees through firing , resignation or voluntary departure.
Blanche's candidacy was vehemently opposed by Democrats, and even some Republican lawmakers had qualms with his avoidance of forthright answers about a dubious $1.776 billion (€1.5 billion) compensation fund for presidential political allies — including those who stormed the US Capital on January 6, 2021 — accusing the federal government of unfair treatment; and DOJ directives that would see the president, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization shielded from tax audits and penalties for life.
Two retiring Republican senators, John Cornyn (Texas) and Thom Tillis (North Carolina), had loudly proclaimed that they would vote against Blanche's appointment unless the compensation fund was dropped.
He assured them that it would be, while also saying that the Trumps' tax immunity would only be applied "retroactively" and not to future filings, clearing the way for Saturday's confirmation vote.
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