Blanche set to lead a Justice Department shaped to serve Trump

(CNN) — Todd Blanche, who risked his career as a prestigious member of New York’s legal establishment to keep Donald Trump out of jail, was confirmed on Saturday as the attorney general.

Blanche, 52, will now permanently act as the nation’s top law enforcement officer under the leadership of his former client.

He was confirmed by a vote of 50 to 49 with GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voting with Democrats against the nomination.

Since Trump re-entered the Oval Office, Blanche has been instrumental in reshaping the department in the president’s image, effectively switching from being the face of Trump’s defense to the face of his far-reaching retribution campaign.

He put forth legal arguments that expand the powers and protection around the presidency, oversaw the mass firings of experienced prosecutors and longtime officials, and spearheaded a legal strategy that has made judges across the nation question the department’s decisions.

And in just the few months since he was appointed acting attorney general, the Justice Department has brought indictments against political figures, including former FBI Director James Comey, issued subpoenas seeking to identify journalists’ sources, created — then abandoned — the controversial anti-weaponization fund, and approved a tax immunity deal between the president and the Internal Revenue Service.

But Blanche has been running the day-to-day operations of the department for far longer than that, and his nomination formalized what had already been the case internally for a while. CNN previously reported that even as deputy attorney general, Blanche often led meetings, including those that the attorney general was supposed to oversee.

That central role became especially consequential in one of the administration’s most volatile sagas, the Epstein files aftermath.

At one point, former Attorney General Pam Bondi was sent into a weekslong media lockdown for repeatedly bungling her television appearances discussing the Epstein matter. Blanche took her place, and, according to Bondi, continued to manage the crisis by himself.

Sources have told CNN that Blanche will have a similar strategy once officially confirmed — bringing cases that highlight what the president claims were instances of Justice Department “weaponization” against him, his allies and supporters.

He will also push forward other administration priorities, like hardline immigration cases and a crackdown on fraud involving government programs.

Managing the unmanageable

Blanche worked for years as a federal prosecutor before entering private practice about a decade ago. When he took Trump on as client in 2023, he stepped down from the white-shoe New York law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he was a partner.

Trump was facing several criminal cases at the time.

Blanche’s decision in April of that year to join Trump’s legal team surprised those around him, according to multiple people familiar. He was registered to vote as a Democrat and those who know him say he did not wear his politics on his sleeve. Known as a hard-working lawyer who loved being a prosecutor, some of his former colleagues were surprised to see him take on the role and echo the rhetoric of his client. As recently as this week, some former colleagues were still baffled and trying to analyze Blanche’s transformation.

But the gamble paid off handsomely.

Quickly, Blanche became Trump’s go-to attorney to navigate three federal indictments.

Blanche was one of a select few who sat beside and advised Trump during his hush-money criminal trial in New York, when the president’s freedom was at stake. He weaved Trump’s gripes into legal briefs and adopted his arguments before the judge, drawing rebukes at times.

Although Trump was convicted, Blanche’s legal tactics helped delay Trump’s sentencing until after the election — effectively ensuring he would not serve prison time.

In a federal case accusing Trump of election interference, the Trump defense team won at the Supreme Court to expand protections from criminal prosecution for the president just before Trump won his second term. Blanche and his team also convinced a Trump-appointed judge in Florida to throw out charges in a second federal case accusing him of mishandling classified documents.

As rumors swirled that his work for Trump could land Blanche a job in the administration, Blanche told allies that he was not interested in a government job, sources told CNN at the time.

Still, he was nominated by Trump to serve as the Justice Department’s number two. At the time, Trump wrote on social media that Blanche will fix “what has been a broken System of Justice for far too long.”

Once in the job, sources say that Blanche immediately eyed the attorney general spot. His work pleased the president, sources told CNN, particularly as he became increasingly frustrated with Blanche’s predecessor, Bondi. When she was fired, Blanche seamlessly slipped into the job, even moving into Bondi’s old office the first week she was gone.

“This is exactly what he’s been waiting for,” one department official said of his confirmation.

Confirmation negotiations

Blanche’s path to confirmation was far from smooth. He spent weeks trying to get into the good graces of senators whose votes were crucial to his success, but some of his efforts were futile.

His struggle to align Republican lawmakers was most obvious with Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Despite a two-day trip to her home state of Alaska, reaching two settlements and dropping two lawsuits, and awarding more than $6 million in grants, Murkowski voted to oppose Blanche.

“The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration,” Murkowski said of her decision. “I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.”

Blanche also concentrated on Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who raised concerns about the “weaponization of the Justice Department,” including a probe into Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide and key witness in the congressional investigation of the January 6 Capitol attack.

It is unclear whether the Justice Department will move for an indictment of the ex-aide.

Blanche’s initial vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee was even delayed as he underwent tense talks with Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, both of whom had concerns about the anti-weaponization fund and the IRS deal.

In the end, Blanche signed one memo that ended the anti-weaponization fund, and released a second, unsigned memo clarifying the terms of the tax-immunity agreement.

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CNN’s Morgan Rimmer and Kara Scannell contributed to this report