President Donald Trump officially nominated acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to hold the role on a permanent basis Monday.
The White House notified the Senate of the nomination days after Trump said he would tap Blanche for the job at a private Rose Garden dinner last week.
Blanche’s path to confirmation remains uncertain. Republican senators, fresh off their opposition to the administration’s proposed Justice Department “anti-weaponization” fund, appear to be hesitant to offer their wholehearted support for Trump’s pick.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who Trump has repeatedly attacked, previously told POLITICO he would weigh the anti-weaponization fund when considering attorney general nominees.
Opposition from any single Republican on the committee could bring Blanche’s nomination to a halt.
And Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who also sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and who lost a primary to a Trump-endorsed opponent last month, told POLITICO last week his support for Blanche “depends on his answers to questions that I intend to ask him at the Judiciary Committee.”
Senate Judiciary Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) signaled his support for the president’s pick, saying in a statement Monday that Blanche is “well-qualified and has shown his dedication to restoring law and order across our country.”
If confirmed, Blanche would succeed former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was forced out of the administration following the botched handling of the Epstein files and Trump’s frustrations that she wasn’t prosecuting his political rivals.
Bondi told Congress in a closed-door interview last month that Blanche was responsible for the Justice Department’s handling of the files, according to a transcript of the interview released last week.
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