Todd Blanche, who served as US President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, has been narrowly confirmed as the nation's attorney general, the top law enforcement official, following a 50-49 Senate vote on Saturday, August 8th, 2026. The confirmation ends a prolonged standoff between Senate Republicans and the Trump administration. Blanche had been acting attorney general since April 2026.

The vote saw two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, join all Democrats in opposing Blanche's nomination. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican known for his past acrimony with Trump, cast the deciding vote in favor of confirmation. During Trump's second impeachment in 2021, Cassidy voted to convict the former president over the January 6 Capitol riot.

Concerns raised by some Republican senators included Blanche's handling of the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents and his involvement in establishing Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponisation" fund. This fund was intended to compensate individuals alleging government persecution, but critics, including Murkowski, feared it might benefit those prosecuted for participating in the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress. Blanche pledged to scale back the fund following pushback during his confirmation hearings.

Collins also expressed reservations about Blanche's role in settling Trump's $10 billion lawsuit with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) but ultimately trusted him to provide candid legal advice to the president.

After the vote, Blanche said he was "deeply honoured by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me."

This confirmation marks a significant moment in the Trump administration's legal and political landscape, with Blanche expected to have "greater leverage to push for things that should be pushed for" and to "check the worst impulses of this administration," according to supporters.

Sources