Senate Republicans Confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General in Narrow Vote: What It Means for the DOJ

Todd Blanche is officially the nation’s attorney general but he got there by the narrowest possible margin. The Senate confirmed him in a 50-49 vote early Saturday, and the count itself tells you most of the story. Two Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, crossed over to vote against one of their own party’s nominees, while every Democrat opposed him too. What saved the nomination was Bill Cassidy, whose yes vote turned out to be the deciding one.

Who is this guy, anyway?

Blanche isn’t a career DOJ lifer who worked his way up; he’s a former federal prosecutor who later became one of Donald Trump’s personal defense lawyers. That relationship carried him into the administration, first as deputy attorney general, then into the acting AG role while his nomination sat in limbo. Trump made the nomination official back in June. His backers, law enforcement groups, and former DOJ officials leaned hard on the idea that he’d sharpen the department’s focus on violent crime and organized criminal networks. His detractors kept coming back to the obvious tension: how do you police fairly when your résumé includes defending the president in court?

Why this took so long

The real holdup wasn’t ideology so much as one specific deal. Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis dug in over a proposed $1.8 billion fund tied to Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS money that critics worried could end up compensating Trump allies who claimed they’d been unfairly targeted. Blanche eventually put it in writing that no such fund would be created, and that was enough to bring Cornyn and Tillis on board. It wasn’t enough for everyone, though. Collins and Murkowski stuck with their no votes even after that concession, which is what made the final tally so tight.

So what changes now?

Practically speaking, Blanche trades the “acting” label for the real thing, which gives him more solid institutional footing to run the department, the FBI, and federal prosecutions going forward. Expect a stated emphasis on violent crime and immigration enforcement. The bigger, murkier question is the one that dogged his confirmation hearings: will the DOJ operate independently of the White House, or will Blanche’s history as Trump’s personal attorney bleed into how prosecutorial decisions get made, especially any that touch Trump himself, his allies, or his political rivals?

FAQs