Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general passed a key hurdle Tuesday, advancing through the Senate Judiciary Committee vote after weeks of protest from Republicans who wanted assurances that he would take steps to rein one of the department’s most controversial blunders.
He now faces his final test to earn the job: earning the vote of nearly every Republican on the Senate floor.
Blanche, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, has aggressively pursued the president’s agenda since he took over on an interim basis in April. The acting attorney general knew that he had to quickly show the White House that he can deliver results in cases the president wanted prioritized — particularly in investigations tied to his political priorities and perceived foes.
He has pursued criminal actions against people and organizations the president has criticized, accelerated scrutiny into the government’s response to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and launched — then discontinued — a nearly $1.8 billion plan intended to compensate people who believe they were wrongly targeted by the criminal justice system.
But since his formal nomination, the attorney general’s office has entered a period of relative silence as it relates to controversial political cases — an interlude that sources say could set the stage for a new push once Blanche is confirmed by the Senate.
