Related videos:
The president Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he will nominate his former personal lawyer Todd Blanche as the permanent attorney general of the United States, after having led the Department of Justice on an interim basis since April.
Trump made the announcement during a dinner at the Rose Garden of the White House and stated that he would formally nominate him this Thursday, according to a video of the event posted on social media by an assistant at the presidential residence. "We are going to make him the permanent attorney general," the president declared, as reported by Telemundo 51.
Blanche, 51 years old, has held the position on an interim basis since April 2, when Trump dismissed Pam Bondi after determining that she had failed to "execute his vision."
The former attorney arrived at the Department of Justice as deputy secretary and was promoted to acting attorney general following Bondi's departure, overseeing more than 115,000 employees, including the FBI, the DEA, and 93 federal prosecutors' offices.
Since taking the reins, Blanche actively sought to position herself for the permanent position through high-profile measures: she expedited investigations against Trump's adversaries and announced the controversial $1.776 billion "Anti-Instrumentalization Fund" to compensate the president's allies for alleged political persecution.
The fund sparked a bipartisan storm. Senator Ted Cruz revealed that Republican lawmakers were "shouting" during the briefing with Blanche, and a federal judge temporarily paused it through a court order.
Under pressure, Blanche announced days ago that the Department of Justice would not move forward with the plan. "We are not going to proceed with the fund," she told legislators, in a remarkable shift of stance that coincided with the blocking of key legislation to finance immigration enforcement agencies.
Blanche's actions have outraged Democrats and other critics, who accuse him of acting as Trump's personal attorney to carry out a campaign of retribution. He dismisses these accusations and asserts that he is correcting the abuses of the previous administration.
Under his interim management, the former FBI Director James Comey was formally charged in April for posting a photo of seashells on Instagram that the government interpreted as a threat against Trump. Comey has a hearing set for June 30 and a tentative trial date on July 15 in North Carolina.
Blanche also appointed Joseph diGenova, 81, a former prosecutor from the Reagan era, to oversee an investigation in Florida regarding whether former intelligence officials conspired to undermine Trump. This investigation, based in the Southern District of Florida, has issued more than 130 subpoenas.
Blanche's trajectory is closely linked to Trump: he was his personal lawyer in three criminal cases between 2023 and 2024, including the trial for hush money payments in New York, the classified documents case, and the federal election obstruction case.
Now it must pass the Senate confirmation, the same body whose Republican members strongly rejected its controversial compensation fund.
Filed under: