The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as the nation's 88th attorney general in a razor-thin 50-49 vote early Saturday morning, but only after he agreed to kill a controversial $1.776 billion settlement fund that had divided his own party.
Blanche, who served as President Trump's personal criminal defense lawyer before joining the Justice Department, cleared the confirmation threshold after weeks of Republican infighting over the so-called anti-weaponization fund. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana cast the decisive vote Friday night, announcing his support just hours before the Senate stayed late into Saturday to finish the process ahead of the August recess.
Two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, joined every Senate Democrat in voting against Blanche. Their opposition centered on concerns about the fund, DOJ independence, and whether Blanche would serve the law or the president who nominated him. But Cassidy's late break in Blanche's favor made those objections academic.
Cassidy did not pretend Blanche was flawless. Fox News reported that the Louisiana senator framed his decision in blunt, pragmatic terms:
"Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this. But the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche. It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general, who may not run the department effectively under President Trump."
Cassidy added that the process was about Blanche, the difficulty of the job, and "how the American people can be best served." He posted his announcement on social media Friday, and within hours the confirmation math shifted from impossible to inevitable.
That math had been stuck for weeks. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa postponed a committee vote on Blanche's nomination after two Republican senators, never publicly identified, withheld support pending written assurances from the DOJ about the anti-weaponization fund. The holdouts wanted the administration to guarantee the fund would not move forward.
The anti-weaponization fund grew out of a settlement ending Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns by contractor Charles Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty. The fund, valued at $1.776 billion, was meant for citizens who claimed the Biden administration had targeted them. AP News reported that the settlement also included IRS audit immunity for Trump and his family, a provision that drew bipartisan scrutiny.
Republican critics worried that the fund could pay out to January 6 defendants, a prospect that made the politics toxic even within the GOP. Blanche read the room. He told Congress earlier this summer that the Trump administration was ending plans for the fund due to bipartisan backlash, and days before the Senate vote, he formally rescinded the fund in writing.
Even that was not enough for the courts. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema extended her block on any payments from the fund. Attorneys for the federal government argued that Blanche's rescission made the lawsuits against the fund moot, but Just the News reported that Brinkema dismissed the mootness argument, saying it did not "go anywhere." She had previously agreed to temporarily block payments from the fund.
Behind the scenes, Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis negotiated concessions with the administration. National Review reported that the holdouts secured written confirmation that IRS audit immunity was narrower than originally drafted, though the underlying settlement agreement itself remained unchanged. Cornyn told reporters he believed "the DOJ needs Senate-confirmed leadership to prevent some of the chaos and dysfunction over there" and called Blanche "as good as you're going to get."
Not every Republican was persuaded. Murkowski said she lacked confidence that Blanche would push back against the White House when it mattered. Her break with the party was not a surprise, she had telegraphed her concerns for weeks, but her stated reasoning cut close to the core debate over Blanche's nomination.
"The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration. I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case."
Collins voted no as well, joining Murkowski and all 48 Senate Democrats in opposition. Democrats argued Blanche's loyalty ran to Trump, not to the institution he was being asked to lead. Sen. Dick Durbin put it in stark terms during the debate, as the Washington Examiner reported:
"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."
Durbin's framing ignored the reason Blanche earned Trump's trust in the first place. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, writing in support of the nomination before the vote, laid out the case that Blanche had proved his character by standing with Trump through what Jordan called an unprecedented legal assault.
Jordan's written statement, published by Breitbart News, did not hold back about what Trump endured before returning to office:
"President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year after withstanding the dirtiest trick in American political history. Partisan Democrats, who failed in their sensationalized impeachments and politicized investigations, resorted to the legal system to stop him. They filed a mountain of charges in courthouses around the country. They forced the president to spend days away from the campaign trail, appearing in and out of court. They censored what he could say, and they even raided his home."
Jordan concluded that Blanche had "the experience, the expertise, and the character we need leading the Department of Justice right now." That endorsement carried weight with conservatives who viewed the prosecutions of Trump as political operations dressed up in legal process.
Blanche himself posted on social media early Saturday, shortly after the vote:
"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. 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. God bless America."
Blanche had already been running the department in an acting capacity after Trump fired Pam Bondi in April. For nearly four months, the Justice Department operated without Senate-confirmed leadership, a gap that gave ammunition to both supporters and critics of the nomination. Supporters, like Cornyn, argued the prolonged vacancy itself was dangerous. Critics argued that confirming Blanche would merely ratify a fait accompli.
Several open questions remain. The two Republican senators who originally withheld their support were never publicly named, and the precise scope of the IRS audit immunity provision, described by Fox News as "sweeping", has not been fully disclosed. Judge Brinkema's block on the anti-weaponization fund appears to remain in effect even after Blanche's rescission, leaving the legal status of the settlement in limbo.
Blanche now leads a department that spent years pursuing the man who appointed him. Whether he uses that position to restore public trust in the DOJ or to settle scores will define his tenure, and the answer matters far more than the 50-49 margin that put him there.
