By Vanguard Staff
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general Saturday, elevating President Donald Trump’s former personal defense lawyer to the nation’s top law enforcement position despite warnings from civil rights advocates that his record at the Justice Department threatens voting rights, civil rights enforcement and the department’s independence from presidential political interests.
The Senate confirmed Blanche in a 50-49 vote, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining Democrats in opposition. Blanche had served as acting attorney general since April after Trump removed Pam Bondi from the position.
The Legal Defense Fund strongly condemned the confirmation, arguing Blanche’s actions while serving in senior Justice Department positions demonstrated that he lacked the independence necessary to enforce federal law impartially.
“Todd Blanche is a self-proclaimed sycophant of President Donald Trump,” Todd A. Cox, associate director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, said in a statement following the vote. “The U.S. Attorney General must be dedicated to enforcing the nation’s civil rights and equal protection under the law, something Todd Blanche is woefully unprepared and unqualified to do.”
The criticism follows a 25-page opposition report issued by LDF before Blanche’s confirmation. The organization argued that the attorney general must serve as an impartial guardian of the law rather than act at the direction of the president, particularly because of the Justice Department’s historic responsibility for enforcing federal civil rights laws.
LDF’s report identified Blanche’s record on voting rights as a central concern, including his support for Trump administration policies governing mail-in voting and proof-of-citizenship requirements. The organization said those policies could restrict voting access for millions of eligible voters, with disproportionate consequences for Black voters and other groups.
The report also criticized Blanche’s role in the Justice Department’s rejection of longstanding disparate-impact guidelines used in employment discrimination cases. According to LDF, the department concluded in June that Equal Employment Opportunity Commission disparate-impact guidelines under Title VII were unconstitutional.
LDF further pointed to the Justice Department’s handling of civil rights protections in education, including changes involving minority-serving institution grant programs and the transfer of some civil rights enforcement responsibilities from the Department of Education.
The organization also criticized Blanche’s aggressive pursuit of the federal death penalty. Its report said Blanche had overseen at least nine capital authorizations during his tenure as acting attorney general and said more than 70% of federal death penalty cases authorized by Trump administration attorneys general involved people of color, predominantly Black defendants.
But questions surrounding Blanche’s independence from Trump became one of the defining issues of his confirmation.
Blanche previously represented Trump in several criminal cases, including the New York prosecution in which Trump was convicted in 2024 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Blanche also served as Trump’s lead counsel in the federal classified-documents case.
Those concerns intensified during Blanche’s July 15 confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Asked by Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana whether he and Trump were friends, Blanche responded, “I’m his lawyer,” before correcting himself to say he “was his lawyer.”
The exchange came during a hearing in which senators questioned Blanche about the Justice Department’s independence, its handling of investigations involving Trump’s political opponents and a proposed $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that would have compensated people claiming they had been unfairly targeted by the government.
Blanche told senators that the fund was “not moving forward.” Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas nevertheless questioned whether the administration had made a binding commitment preventing the proposal from being revived.
The proposed fund originated in a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the disclosure of his tax returns. LDF characterized the proposal as an improper mechanism that could have rewarded Trump’s political supporters and noted that its administration would have been controlled by a five-person committee appointed by the attorney general.
Blanche also faced scrutiny over a separate portion of the settlement providing Trump and members of his family protection from certain tax audits. Blanche defended that agreement at his confirmation hearing.
“Nobody is above the law,” Blanche said. Such a settlement “doesn’t make any of those individuals above the law.”
Senators also questioned Blanche about the Justice Department’s handling of records related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The release was marred by redaction problems that exposed some identifying information and images involving potential victims. Blanche acknowledged during the hearing that “mistakes were made,” while saying approximately 1% of the records required corrected redactions.
“I want to make sure that the American people know that this administration, when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein, has been more transparent than any administration,” Blanche said.
LDF’s opposition report separately accused Blanche of failing to release the full extent of Epstein-related files required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act while personally intervening in matters involving Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for her role in Epstein’s sexual abuse scheme.
The organization also accused Blanche of politicizing Justice Department investigations involving the 2020 presidential election.
LDF cited a Justice Department grand jury subpoena seeking personal information about election workers, staff, contractors and volunteers involved in administering the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia. Members of Congress objected that the subpoena sought information without a sufficiently clear and narrowly tailored legal basis.
The report noted that Georgia’s 2020 presidential results were counted three times, each confirming Joe Biden’s victory, while an FBI investigation involving more than 200 analysts had produced no public evidence of wrongdoing as of June.
LDF also criticized Justice Department efforts during Blanche’s tenure to obtain sensitive voter-registration records from states, saying those efforts had been rejected by 10 federal district courts and one federal appellate court as of July.
At his confirmation hearing, however, Blanche defended the direction of the department, arguing that the Justice Department had itself been politicized in previous years.
“In recent years, we watched the Justice Department turned against many of you and a former president, and it damaged the public’s faith in justice,” Blanche said. “We are fixing that.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware challenged that characterization and Blanche’s leadership.
“You’re in charge of a Department of Justice I don’t recognize, prosecuting the president’s political enemies, firing rank and file prosecutors and FBI agents,” Coons told him. “These are some actions that in your previous confirmation hearing before us, you said you would not take.”
Blanche also faced questioning about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and Trump’s clemency for more than 1,500 people charged or convicted in connection with it.
Blanche told senators he has “never said that any sort of violence against law enforcement is appropriate.”
“He has the absolute right to pardon anybody for any reason he sees fit,” Blanche said of Trump. “I am not celebrating that. It is a fact.”
LDF said Blanche’s record ultimately raised a broader question about whether the attorney general would enforce the law independently when the interests of the president were involved.
“The role of our nation’s top law enforcement officer must be to seek justice, not to act for or at the direction of the president and use the power of the Department of Justice to undermine our civil rights,” Cox said.
“Given this, to think Todd Blanche capable of overseeing an unbiased enforcement of our nation’s laws in light of his blatant allegiance to the president over the Constitution is folly,” Cox continued. “By voting to confirm, the Senate has doomed the Justice Department to leadership incapable and undeserving of public trust.”
“Today is a shameful day for the rule of law.”
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