US Senate narrowly confirms Todd Blanche as attorney general in overnight vote

President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Todd Blanche was confirmed as US attorney general on Saturday after Senate Republicans shrugged off Democratic concerns over politicisation of the Justice Department.

Blanche, who has already been serving as the top US law enforcement officer in an acting capacity, represented Trump as his private attorney in several criminal trials before entering government. The Senate, which Republicans narrowly control, confirmed him by 50 votes to 49.

Trump, who has upended US political norms by seeking to bring nominally independent government agencies under his increasingly direct control, calls Blanche a "star."

Democrats opposed Blanche from the beginning, accusing Trump of turning the Department of Justice into a political weapon.

"The attorney general is supposed to be the people's lawyer," Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday.

"Mr Blanche continues to operate as the president's personal lawyer, treating the Justice Department like a law firm serving one client -- the president."

There were doubts over whether the White House could persuade a handful of Republican holdouts, without whom even the narrow confirmation would have been impossible.

The main sticking point was an attempt to establish a $1.8 billion fund for what Trump calls victims of politicized prosecutions, likely including the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempted insurrection to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as president after his defeat of Trump in the 2020 election.

The other main issue was an extraordinary proposal granting immunity to Trump from tax audits.

'Hush money'

Blanche ultimately defused the internal party opposition with a written order over the weekend scrapping the so-called political "anti-weaponization fund" and saying that the audit immunity agreement with Trump, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization would only apply "retroactively" to past tax years and not future filings.

Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general since Trump fired Pam Bondi, another political loyalist, in April.

Since then, he has been closely tied to what Democrats dub a Trump "retribution" campaign against the 80-year-old president's opponents.

Blanche has also come in for criticism from victims of Jeffrey Epstein over his handling of the release of investigative files about the convicted sex offender, a one-time close friend of Trump.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Blanche represented Trump in his New York trial over alleged "hush money" paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

He was also on the legal defense team in two federal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith -- for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Both cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)