Chuck Grassley

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump‘s former personal defense attorney, as U.S. attorney general early Saturday morning.

Two Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted against the confirmation. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., missed the vote.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., was a critical vote because he had raised concerns about Blanche. He, along with John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said they were uncomfortable with the politicization of the Department of Justice, as well as the controversial settlement between the president and the IRS in which Trump was given $1.8 billion fund to compensate people that he believed were victims of political prosecutions.

All three of them voted to confirm Blanche.

Cassidy said he chose to vote for Blanche because Trump might nominate someone worse.

“The choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,” Politico reported Cassidy said on the Senate floor. “It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”

The vote tally was 50-49 at 4:31 a.m. Saturday. The Senate then left for a five-week recess.

Blanche has been acting attorney general since Trump fired Pam Bondi from the position in April.

“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,” Blanche said in a post on X. “I am grateful to the Senate for staying late to complete this process.”

Not everyone supported Blanche’s nomination.

“The problem with confirming Todd Blanche is that he has never been able to shed his role as criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump. He just can’t do it,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to advance the nomination. “He will never do what’s best for the American people. He will only do what’s best for Donald Trump, and you cannot leave someone like that as the nation’s No. 1 law enforcement official.”

“The biggest concern is whether he is now going to be emboldened to go even more gung-ho on Trump’s campaign of using the Justice Department for retribution,” former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson told NBC News in an interview before the confirmation. “There are no guardrails.”

“America is safer with Todd Blanche at the helm of the Justice Department,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a statement.

Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he disagrees.

“It was a grave mistake for the Senate to approve Todd Blanche as the next Attorney General,” he said in a post on X. “If there is ever a moment in history when we need an AG above reproach, who is dedicated to ending corruption, it is right now. This nation deserves an Attorney General who loves the Constitution more than he loves the President. Sadly, Todd Blanche is not that person.”

June 8 (UPI) — On Monday, President Donald Trump officially nominated Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, to take over the job for good, sending the nomination to the Senate. Blanche would replace Pam Bondi, the attorney general Trump fired in April.

Trump said several days ago that he would officially nominate Blanche, who used to be one of the president’s personal defense lawyers, for the role.

Now, the Senate must confirm Blanche through a majority vote. In a statement, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said that he will support Blanche, CNN reported.

“Blanche is well-qualified and has shown his dedication to restoring law and order across our country,” Grassley said. “The Senate Judiciary Committee’s work to process Blanche’s nomination is underway.”

CNN also reported that Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is also a member of the committee, said that he will ask Blanche about Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which was created after a settlement between the Internal Revenue Service and the president, his sons and the Trump Organization.

Blanche said last week that the fund, which some have called a way for Trump to reward his political allies (including those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol), is dead. However, he refused to put that in writing. On Thursday, Senate Republicans stopped an attempt by Democrats to ensure the fund’s permanent demise through an amendment to a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

Blanche’s nomination also comes after he arranged for Trump and the other parties in the IRS lawsuit to have immunity from prosecution or enforcement actions on any tax returns filed before the settlement.

Blanche is also likely to face questions on the release of the so-called Epstein Files. Bondi told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in May that she put Blanche, then deputy attorney general, in charge of releasing the files, CNBC reported. The department did not redact the names of some victims and withheld other documents.