Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
The Senate confirmed Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, as Attorney General by 50–49
Blanche had defended Trump in the 2024 Manhattan hush-money trial, served as Deputy Attorney General and had been acting Attorney General since April 2026.
What happened
At 4:17 a.m. on August 8, 2026, the Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as Attorney General by a vote of 50 to 49. Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted no with every Democrat and both independents. Bill Cassidy voted yes, and Mitch McConnell did not vote.
Blanche left a major law firm in 2023 to represent Trump in his criminal cases. They included the Manhattan trial that ended in 34 felony convictions, the federal classified-documents case and the election-interference case. Trump named him Deputy Attorney General in 2025, and his office issued the directive to prepare investigations of the Open Society Foundations. He served as acting Attorney General from April 2026.
The nomination had been endangered by a proposed Justice Department “anti-weaponization” compensation fund, which critics said could pay January 6 defendants. The department rescinded it before the vote. Eight days later, on “Meet the Press,” Blanche refused to pledge independence from the White House and said he would take the president’s views into account in prosecution decisions.
Who benefited
Trump installed the lawyer who had personally defended him in criminal court as the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer, with Senate confirmation rather than acting status. Blanche went from defense counsel to Attorney General in under two years.
Who wanted something
Trump nominated him. Senate Republican leadership under John Thune scheduled an overnight vote and held all but two of the conference. Cassidy, who had broken with Trump on other nominations, voted yes.
Who lost out
The Justice Department’s post-Watergate independence from the president’s personal interests now rests with a man who spent the previous two years arguing the president’s innocence. Defendants and targets who are Trump’s political opponents face his department. Senators who sought assurances of independence did not get them.
Why it matters
No previous attorney general had served as the sitting president’s personal criminal defense lawyer. Blanche’s confirmation, by one vote, put the president’s former defense counsel in charge of the department that prosecutes his adversaries.
Sources U.S. Senate (primary)CNN