WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche was confirmed as US attorney general on Saturday (Aug 8) after Senate Republicans shrugged off Democratic concerns over the politicisation of the Justice Department.
Blanche, who has already been serving as the top US law enforcement officer in an acting capacity, represented Trump as his private attorney in several criminal trials before entering government.
The Senate, which Republicans narrowly control, confirmed him by 50 votes to 49. Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined the Democrats in voting no, underlining the political sensitivity over the nomination.
Blanche said he was “deeply honoured by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me to lead the Department of Justice”.
“I am grateful to the Senate for staying late to complete this process. To the dedicated public servants of the Department of Justice, thank you for your work each day to uphold the law and keep our country safe,” Blanche wrote on X.
Trump, who has upended US political norms by seeking to bring nominally independent government agencies under his increasingly direct control, calls Blanche a “star”.
Democrats opposed Blanche from the beginning, accusing Trump of turning the Department of Justice into a political weapon.
“The attorney general is supposed to be the people’s lawyer,” Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday.
“Mr Blanche continues to operate as the president’s personal lawyer, treating the Justice Department like a law firm serving one client – the president.”
There were doubts over whether the White House could persuade a handful of Republican holdouts, without whom even the narrow confirmation would have been impossible.
The main sticking point was an attempt to establish a US$1.8 billion fund for what Trump calls victims of politicised prosecutions, likely including the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, in an attempted insurrection to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as president after his defeat of Trump in the 2020 election.
The other main issue was an extraordinary proposal granting immunity to Trump from tax audits.
