Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the department permanently, walks past reporters at the U.S. Capitol on May 21, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will nominate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer, to permanently fill the top job at the Justice Department, he said Wednesday night.
Trump announced Blanche as his choice at an outdoor event at the White House. He said: “We will make him permanent attorney general,” adding that he expects Blanche’s nomination process to “move very quickly.”
Blanche has served as interim leader of the department since former Attorney General Pam Bondi took over leave the administration at the beginning of April.
Blanche of Florida will almost certainly have that state’s two Republican senators, Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, supporting his nomination.
The Republican-led Senate confirmed Blanche as acting attorney general in early March 2025 Party line vote.
Blanche represented Trump in 2023 and 2024 during a hush money case in New York state. A jury sentenced Trump two years ago on 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records.
The close connection between the president and his pick for attorney general is a key reason Democrats will reject the nomination, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Thursday.
“Trump chose Blanche because he is loyal only to the president – not to the Constitution, not to the rule of law and certainly not to the American people and not to the values that this country has represented for 250 years,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “For years, Blanche has been Trump’s personal lawyer and attack dog, and that didn’t stop when Blanche joined the department.”
Anti-gun fund
Blanche has come under pressure for the ministry in recent weeks, including from Republicans settlement in Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against his own IRS.
Trump dropped the lawsuit in exchange for the department setting up a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-gun” fund for people Blanche described on May 18 as “victims of lawfare.” The settlement determined that the fund would be managed by five commissioners hand-picked by Blanche, with only one requiring consultation with congressional leadership.
Members of Congress on both sides quickly protested the proposal, raising the possibility that people convicted of assaults on police during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and then pardoned by Trump could receive reparations from the fund.
When asked at a Senate hearing on May 27 whether violent defendants pardoned on January 6 could receive taxpayer money from the fund, Blanche replied: “Anyone can apply.”
“The commission will set rules, I’m sure,” he continued. “That’s not my job, that’s up to the commissioners, and whether an individual, an Oath Keeper, as you just mentioned, applies for compensation, anyone in this country can apply.”
Several Complaints quickly questioned the fund’s legality, including one from former police officers stationed at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and another from lawyers who argued the fund was illegally shielded from transparency laws.
After a lot of pressure, Blanche stated On Tuesday, he told a House appropriations subcommittee that the administration “is not moving forward with the fund, period.”
The concession paved the way for hesitant Senate Republicans to support a roughly $70 billion immigration control package. Senate Democrats plan to stall the bill on Thursday with a marathon of amendments, including proposals to cut or ban such funding in the future.
The administration is noiseless face questions from lawmakers over a provision in Trump’s IRS settlement that exempts him, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization from tax audits.
Epstein files
Blanche has also been under investigation over the Justice Department’s handling of the release of files related to the overdue sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Names of sexual abuse victims were initially revealed in the botched release last year, when Bondi headed the department.
Democrats claims Bondi told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a closed interview last week that Blanche oversaw the legally required release of the files and made the decision not to pursue possible leads.
Bondi denied the claim on social media after the interview.
