Senate Judiciary Committee members will deliberate and vote on Thursday on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the permanent position. Because the nominee lacks critical qualifications to serve as the nation’s chief law enforcement official, members should reject his nomination.Since March 2025, during Blanche’s tenure as deputy attorney general under Pam Bondi and acting attorney general after Trump dismissed her, the nominee has compiled a record that powerfully shows Blanche disrespects the rule of law and deploys law enforcement as a partisan weapon. Because the nominee has injured the Justice Department as deputy and acting attorney general and may have misled Congress, the panel must support nonpartisan justice by rejecting him.In 2023 and 2024, Blanche served as Trump’s personal lawyer, defending him against a New York hush money case and two federal indictments. In Blanche’s DOJ roles, the nominee has continued elevating Trump’s interests above the country’s. For instance, Blanche has pursued strikingly weak criminal indictments, especially two against former FBI Director James Comey. Blanche has also contributed to designing and consummating a “deal” with Trump’s personal lawyers and DOJ counsel to settle Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. That shocking deal would use $1.776 billion in taxpayer money to compensate supposed victims of putative Biden-era government weaponization, including many Jan. 6, 2021, rioters charged with storming the Capitol and assaulting police. Blanche also helped draft and signed the reprehensible side agreement that would immunize Trump, his family, and Trump businesses from IRS audits, thus exempting Trump from possible estimated tax liabilities of $100 million.