Senate Advances Todd Blanche Nomination for Attorney General

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nomination of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for the full post along party lines on Tuesday, setting up a floor vote of the full Senate to confirm him as as attorney general.

Blanche was advanced 12-10 out of committee, after outgoing Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., threatened to tank the nomination over the Justice Department’s $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund, meant to provide restitution to victims of government weaponization under the Biden administration.

After meetings with Blanche and a signed statement ending that fund, both Cornyn and Tillis agreed to vote in favor of him out of committee. President Donald Trump thought about withdrawing Blanche’s nomination until the two Republican holdouts leave office in January 2027.

“[M]y vote to advance Mr. Blanche’s nomination goes beyond this document. We need a stabilizing force at the Department of Justice, and Mr. Blanche deserves the opportunity to provide that, as opposed to continuing to serve in an acting capacity and as the deputy attorney general,” Cornyn said. “The Department of Justice does not need a temporary, unconfirmed nominee as our nation’s top law enforcement officer. President Trump needs someone in this role, as well, with a strong legal mind, but who also is close enough to him to give him confidential legal advice to tell him hard truths.”

“I thought what Mr. Blanche said during his hearing was very important. He said, ‘I can give the president confidential legal advice, but of course, he doesn’t have to follow it. He was elected President of the United States and not me,’” Cornyn added.

Tillis seemed to be less generally supportive of Blanche. He used his time ahead of the vote Tuesday to claim that government weaponization happens on “both” sides. He noted Crossfire Hurricane — the Obama intelligence agencies’ coordinated effort to frame the incoming President Trump as a Russian spy with falsified intelligence based on lies from Democrat operatives — and Obama IRS chief Lois Lerner’s self-admitted practice of financially targeting conservative groups for their beliefs. Tillis also said some Biden officials “should probably be disbarred or disciplined” for targeting Republicans.

Although Tillis did not refer to James Comey by name, he also appeared to reference the former FBI director’s “86 47” post — a post a federal grand jury in North Carolina argued was an assassination threat against President Trump. Tillis seemed to oppose the decision to bring charges against the FBI director over the post.

“Some bonehead in North Carolina thinks that that’s a crime,” Tillis said. “Well, they better damn sure have information to back it up because if all it is is a picture, that person should lose his job, his or her job.”

Tillis did not commit to supporting his confirmation in the full Senate, specifically stating he was “I am prepared to vote yes today … in moving his confirmation, or nomination, forward.”

It is unclear if there will be a floor vote battle for his nomination, as there are other Republicans, such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Bill Cassidy, R-La., who may be needed and who are persistently unreliable. While Cassidy is leaving office this year with Cornyn and Tillis, Collins is in a contentious reelection battle this year.

Murkowski said that the written dissolution of the anti-weaponization fund is a “pretty good step” but said that she wanted to “find out a little bit more about the negotiations.”

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, allowed every Democrat committee member to speak who wanted to ahead of the vote on Tuesday, and most Democrats peddled the same kinds of smears against Blanche they have been throughout his confirmation hearings: That he is only beholden to Trump, not the American people; that the anti-weaponization fund is not really dissolved; that he is involved in an Epstein cover-up; and that he does not care about victims of crime.

Grassley, on the other hand, noted the downward trend in crime since the Trump administration took office, including under Blanche’s leadership in an acting capacity, and read through comparative crime statistics that he noted during Blanche’s confirmation hearings.

“Todd Blanche’s Justice Department has reprioritized the safety of Americans after the Biden administration opened borders to violent criminals and then turned a blind eye to heinous crimes that were happening around the country,” Grassley said. “The Biden administration was too busy weaponizing the Justice Department against political opponents to stop real crime, and so please don’t forget, whistleblowers and media outlets reported that the Biden FBI even reassigned personnels from investigating child sex crimes to work on January 6 cases. So it’s no surprise that when the Trump administration secured the borders and Mr. Blanche did his job prioritizing safety of Americans, crime has come down.”

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.