Washington — Todd Blanche took the oath of office as attorney general at the White House on Monday, two days after the Senate narrowly confirmed the president’s former defense attorney to lead the Justice Department.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a video of Blanche taking the oath of office in the Oval Office. Judge Emil Bove, who served alongside Blanche on Mr. Trump’s legal defense team before Bove was appointed to the federal bench, administered the oath as the president looked on.
Blanche had been serving as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi’s ouster in April, following his tenure as deputy attorney general. The White House formally nominated him in June to become the nation’s top law enforcement official.
The Senate confirmed Blanche in the early hours of Saturday after an all-night session, as lawmakers rushed to finish business before leaving Washington for the August recess. His path to confirmation had been uncertain for weeks, with Democrats united in opposition and some Republicans openly raising reservations.
Much of the Republican unease centered on the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which was intended to compensate people who claimed they had been mistreated by the federal government. Blanche told lawmakers in June that the fund was “dead,” but concerns lingered among GOP senators, including John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Both senators dropped their opposition last week after Blanche issued an order revoking the directive that had created the fund.
The final margin hinged on Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana after Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said last week that they would vote against Blanche. Cassidy, who has shown a greater willingness to split with his party in recent months after losing to a Trump-backed challenger, had not publicly committed to supporting the acting attorney general. In brief remarks on the Senate floor Friday, Cassidy announced he would vote yes, later describing the choice as not a “black or white decision.”
“Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this, but the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,” Cassidy said on the Senate floor. “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.”
With Cassidy’s backing, Blanche won confirmation by the slimmest of margins, 50-49.
Blanche’s ascent to the Justice Department’s top job follows his emergence as a key figure in Mr. Trump’s inner circle ahead of the president’s return to the White House.
Blanche joined Mr. Trump’s legal defense team in 2023, after Mr. Trump was indicted in a case related to “hush money” payments to Stormy Daniels in 2016. Mr. Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts in May 2024.
Mr. Trump nominated Blanche to be deputy attorney general shortly after winning the presidential election in November 2024.
Blanche received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School and clerked for two federal judges in New York before he was hired to work as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Blanche later joined the law firm WilmerHale in New York, before going on to work at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft until 2023, when he started his own firm, Blanche Law.
Melissa Quinn
contributed to this report.
