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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears to be poised to officially face the tenuous Senate confirmation process, amid reports that the White House has notified the U.S. Senate of his formal nomination for the permanent role.
According to Politico, President Donald Trump nominated Blanche on Monday.
This comes just days after the president suggested that he would likely nominate Blanche for the long-term position.
“Tomorrow I’m instructing Dan and everybody else that’s involved in that very complicated process, which is gonna go I think very quickly, that we are going to make [Blanche] permanent attorney general,” he told attendees at a special Rose Garden dinner, per RSBN.
Blanche took over as acting attorney general in the wake of former AG Pam Bondi’s departure from the administration earlier this year.
His path to becoming the permanent attorney general may be fraught. The Senate confirmation process is notoriously difficult, and with a slim Republican majority, it wouldn’t take much opposition to stall the nomination.
The political fallout from the recent so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” could potentially affect the confirmation process. This fund would have been fueled with money from a settlement last month between the DOJ and President Donald Trump following his high-profile lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
Per RSBN, the fund would have been worth around $1.8 billion and would have been used to help those who were victims of alleged weaponization. However, it faced intense criticism from lawmakers, prompting Blanche to backtrack on the fund.
“We are not moving forward with the fund. Period,” Blanche told lawmakers during a House subcommittee hearing last week.
Upon receiving President Trump’s formal nomination of Blanche to the role of attorney general, Republican Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (Iowa) released a statement.
“I’ve worked well with Acting Attorney General Blanche for more than a year and appreciate his commitment to transparency and support for law enforcement,” he said. “Blanche is well-qualified and has shown his dedication to restoring law and order across our country. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s work to process Blanche’s nomination is underway.”