President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Todd Blanche, has been confirmed in a late-night vote in the Senate after a handful of fellow Republicans reconsidered their opposition.
Blanche was confirmed in a 50–49 vote in the early hours of Aug. 8, with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voting in opposition. The deciding vote was cast by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who announced on Friday that he believed Blanche was the best option that Trump would put forward.
“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 statement on social media, adding that he’s grateful to the Senate “for staying late to complete this process.”
The vote brought to a close weeks of tension and uncertainty over the nomination of Blanche, who has served as acting attorney general since April after previously serving as the Justice Department’s second-ranking official.
In his statement, Blanche thanked the staff at the Department of Justice, praising them for their “work each day to uphold the law and keep our country safe.”
“God bless America,” he said.
Before the deciding late-night vote was cast, the Senate worked throughout the evening on Aug. 7, with several short recesses, but procedural steps were still needed before the nomination could reach the final stage.
Earlier in the day, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he expected a confirmation vote quickly.
He previously took several steps to address concerns raised by GOP holdouts.
Two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, initially withheld support at a time when Blanche needed votes from all 11 Republicans on the committee. The July 11 death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) created a vacancy on the committee and left Republicans with only a one-vote majority over Democrats.
That committee’s approval was needed to advance Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate.
Graham’s successor, his sister Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.), later joined the committee and voted in his favor along with all of her GOP colleagues on Aug. 4.
“I was pleased to support President Trump’s choice for Attorney General: Todd Blanche,” she wrote on X that day, expressing confidence that he would “faithfully uphold our nation’s laws and keep law abiding Americans safe.”
She urged the Senate to move ahead with his nomination in the full Senate “as soon as possible,” rather than leaving the vote unresolved and going on an extended recess as scheduled, from the close of business on Aug. 7 and returning to session Sept. 14.
Tillis and Cornyn reversed their positions and decided to support the nominee after Blanche and the Justice Department complied with their demands.
Both senators had insisted that Blanche rescind an order that created a controversial compensation fund for people alleging they were victims of politically motivated prosecutions. Trump had advocated devoting his $1.8 billion settlement from the IRS for that purpose; the president had sued over the agency’s leaking of his personal tax returns.
Before that, at Tillis’s insistence, Blanche met with accusers of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who criticized the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein investigation and release of records about the case.
