Trump's ex-lawyer Todd Blanche set for confirmation as US attorney-general

Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, is set to be confirmed as US attorney-general after a Republican holdout senator announced his support.

Blanche, who has already been serving as the top US law enforcement officer in an acting capacity, represented Trump as his private attorney in several criminal trials before entering government.

With Republicans holding only narrow control of the Senate, he faced the potential embarrassment of failing to secure formal confirmation. Two senators from Trump's party said they would not support Blanche, leaving his fate in question until a third holdout, senator Bill Cassidy, went on live television on Friday to announce he was a "yes".

That should allow Blanche's confirmation by the slenderest of margins, with all Democrats expected to vote "no".

Trump, who has upended US political norms by seeking to bring nominally independent government agencies under his increasingly direct control, calls Blanche a "star".

Democrats opposed Blanche from the beginning, accusing Trump of turning the justice department into a political weapon.

"The attorney general is supposed to be the people's lawyer," senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday. "Mr Blanche continues to operate as the president's personal lawyer, treating the justice department like a law firm serving one client – the president," he said.

A key sticking point in Blanche's bid was his attempt to establish a US$1.8 billion fund for what Trump calls victims of politicised prosecutions. Those were likely to include the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021 in an attempted insurrection to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as president.

The other main issue was an extraordinary proposal to grant Trump immunity from tax audits.

Blanche ultimately defused the internal party opposition with a written order over the weekend scrapping the so-called political "anti-weaponisation fund". He also said the audit immunity agreement with Trump, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization would apply only "retroactively" to past tax years, not future filings.

Blanche has been acting attorney-general since Trump fired Pam Bondi, another political loyalist, in April. Since then he has been closely tied to what Democrats dub a Trump "retribution" campaign against the 80-year-old president's opponents. He has also drawn criticism from victims of Jeffrey Epstein over his handling of the release of investigative files on the convicted sex offender, a one-time close friend of Trump.

Before joining the justice department, Blanche represented Trump in his New York trial over alleged "hush money" paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, and was on the defence team in two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Both were dropped after Trump won the 2024 election.