The US Senate on Saturday approved the choice of Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, to formally become the new Minister of Justice, who had already been acting since April.
The American president therefore manages to appoint for good, by a close vote of 50 votes to 49, one of his loyalists to this strategic position, which oversees the entire federal prosecutor’s office and its prosecutors, against the objections of certain senators from his own camp. Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats to vote against.
Todd Blanche said on X “deeply honored by the trust that President Trump has placed in (him) to lead the Department of Justice”. “I am grateful to the Senate for extending its session to bring this process to a conclusion,” he added, thanking the “dedicated officials of the Department of Justice.”
The Democratic opposition opposed his nomination en bloc, denouncing the Trump administration’s use of the Justice Department as a political weapon against its opponents.
Three criminal cases
Todd Blanche became known to the general public as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer in three criminal cases which targeted the billionaire before his return to the White House, including that relating to concealed payments to a former porn actress, Stormy Daniels. The case led to his criminal conviction in the spring of 2024, a first for a former American president. Once back at the White House, Donald Trump appointed Todd Blanche as number two in the department, along with other of his former advisers, notably Pam Bondi as minister.
But, in the middle of a very embarrassing Jeffrey Epstein affair for the executive, the president fired Pam Bondi at the beginning of April 2026, immediately entrusting the interim to Todd Blanche, already on the front line in the case of the American financier and child molester who died in prison.
The confirmation of his nomination by the Senate, as required by the Constitution, has since gone through a tortuous process.
Written guarantees
Two senators from the Republican majority, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, demanded the definitive abandonment of two highly contested initiatives – or at least significant restrictions on them. One concerned a so-called “anti-instrumentalization” fund of justice of nearly $1.8 billion, to financially compensate allies of Donald Trump for prosecutions initiated under the Biden administration, a “slush fund” according to the Democratic opposition. The other aimed to offer tax immunity to the Republican president and his relatives.
Faced with several court decisions, the government declared it was abandoning the compensation fund project, but the two Republican senators demanded written guarantees that it would not be resurrected in the future. This is ultimately what Todd Blanche did on Sunday, satisfying the reservations of the two senators.
He also clarified that the tax immunity agreement concluded with Donald Trump, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization would only apply “retroactively” to past tax years, and not to future returns.
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee gave its approval, paving the way for a vote by all senators.
“Just one customer”
The Democratic minority, on the other hand, relentlessly attacked Todd Blanche, described as one of the leading figures in the campaign of retaliation launched by the Trump administration against the president’s adversaries.
Shortly after his arrival at the head of the department, in April, federal justice indicted former FBI director James Comey, the designated target of the president’s vindictiveness.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin on Tuesday accused Todd Blanche of “continuing to operate as the president’s personal lawyer, using the Justice Department as a firm serving only one client: the president.”
Asked about his friendly ties with Donald Trump during his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Todd Blanche made a slip of the tongue. “I am his lawyer,” he declared, before immediately correcting himself to conjugate the sentence in the past tense: “I was his lawyer.”
