The United States Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as the nation’s 88th attorney general early Saturday after a marathon voting session ahead of the chamber’s August recess.

The vote ended a drawn out confirmation fight marked by committee delays and resistance from several Republican senators.

Blanche previously served as a personal attorney for President Donald Trump and was confirmed as deputy attorney general in March 2025.

He became acting attorney general on April 2, 2026, after Trump removed Pam Bondi from the Justice Department’s top position.

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Trump said Bondi would move into a private sector role while Blanche took command of the department.

The move placed a trusted and experienced legal figure at the center of the administration’s effort to restore credibility at an agency battered by years of political controversy.

At the time, Trump said that “our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General.”

The president announced his intention to nominate Blanche permanently on June 3 and formally submitted the nomination on June 8.

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The nomination soon became entangled in a dispute involving a settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

The agreement included a proposed fund of roughly $1.8 billion intended to compensate victims of politically motivated prosecutions carried out under the Biden Justice Department.

Republican Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas raised concerns about the fund and threatened to oppose Blanche in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Both senators demanded written assurances that the proposal would be shelved before they agreed to help move the nomination forward.

Their opposition forced leaders to cancel an initial committee vote, adding another chapter to a process that had already dragged on for weeks.

A deal was eventually reached, allowing the committee to advance Blanche’s nomination on August 4.

The trouble did not end when Blanche reached the Senate floor.

Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine announced that they would oppose confirmation, narrowing the margin and giving Senate leadership little room for error.

“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,” Murkowski said.

Her statement reflected the familiar resistance from Republicans who seem eager to earn approving nods from the political establishment.

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The numbers became especially delicate because Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky remained unavailable following a medical emergency earlier in the summer.

With two Republican defections already declared, every remaining vote carried additional weight during the late session.

Blanche’s path became clearer Friday afternoon when Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana announced his support after being viewed as another possible holdout.

Cassidy framed the choice as a practical decision about who could effectively manage the Justice Department under Trump.

“This is not a referendum on President Trump. It is a decision regarding Mr. Blanche in very specific circumstances,” Cassidy said.

“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, and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”

That support helped secure Blanche’s confirmation despite weeks of procedural drama and Republican hand wringing.

The vote also gave Trump a permanent attorney general with firsthand knowledge of the legal attacks and investigations that shaped the president’s years outside the White House.

“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 said.

Blanche now assumes permanent control of a department facing intense scrutiny over its conduct during the Biden era.

Conservatives will expect him to enforce the law evenly, expose abuses of federal power, and make political weaponization far more difficult to hide behind Washington procedure.

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