Todd Blanche advances toward confirmation, paving way for reenergized Justice Department investigations

(CNN) — 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.

Some investigations that have not yet resulted in charges have seen less visible activity during his confirmation process, including the broad probe related to the Trump-Russia investigation. But people with knowledge of pending investigations say public activity is expected to return.

Other parts of the Justice Department, meanwhile, have continued to press forward on matters viewed as central to the administration, including large-scale fraud cases and immigration enforcement.

And new issues are beginning to pop up for Blanche’s team, particularly those related to the upcoming midterm elections. The Justice Department will have to grapple with the president’s longstanding accusations of widespread voter fraud, a test it so far has avoided.

Firming up the vote

Blanche was thrust into the job after Pam Bondi, the former attorney general, bungled the handling of the Epstein files and ignited a political firestorm that continues to cause problems for Trump and the Justice Department. Trump eventually fired Bondi after months of discussing her failure to aggressively bring cases against his personal and political foes.

But the final hurdles to his nomination were problems of his own making. Blanche oversaw an unprecedented settlement agreement between Trump and his own administration over an IRS contractor’s leak of Trump’s tax information.

Much of the furor focused on a nearly $1.8 billion dollar so-called “anti-weaponization fund” that was intended to benefit Trump supporters, including potentially Jan. 6 Capitol rioters. Blanche long ago admitted the fund was a mistake and said that it would not proceed. At his confirmation hearing, under questioning from Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, Blanche acknowledged an addendum was still in force that granted Trump and his family immunity from IRS audits and possibly any other investigation for matters not even known.

In addition to Cornyn, who lost his primary election in May, Blanche also had to win the vote of North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who is not seeking reelection.

The issue became so contentious that Republicans had to delay the committee vote out of fear that Blanche would fail to win enough support, as Tillis and Cornyn publicly accused one of Trump’s political advisors of sabotaging White House approval for a potential agreement.

Blanche’s team and Cornyn’s chief legal counsel went through contentious negotiations for several days, going back and forth several times to come up with specific language that Blanche could use confirm that the deal was indeed dead. Lat Sunday night, Blanche announced a resolution.

Blanche shared two documents in a post on X, one a signed memo stating that the Justice Department was formally rescinding the order that established anti-weaponization fund, and a second, unsigned statement clarifying the terms of the IRS protections. Tillis and Cornyn quickly affirmed their approval of the deal.

Cornyn on Tuesday thanked Blanche for working with his staff on the orders, and said that he expects the department to “live up” to their agreement in potential future cases.

“We need a stabilizing force at the Department of Justice, and Mr. Blanche deserves the opportunity to provide that, as opposed to continuing to serve in an acting capacity,” Cornyn said.

Tillis, for his part, said he was “going to support mr. Blanche’s nomination, but what I hope I see out of him is a bending of the curve of this absurdity.”

Their votes were vital, since Blanche required the backing of all Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to proceed to a final vote on his confirmation.

“It’s just a crime that it took so long to work out with such a common sense thing that’s pretty simple,” Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley said at the start of Tuesday’s hearing.

Tillis had also chastised Blanche over the bungled release of the Epstein files, which initially included documents that had victims’ photos or personal information. At his confirmation hearing Blanche acknowledged that “mistakes were made” in the process but still defended the effort.

Tillis said in mid-July that he would not vote for Blanche if the acting attorney general did not meet with Epstein survivors, which they had repeatedly requested. Blanche’s staff arranged that meeting the same day.

Once it was over, Tillis posted on social media that Blanche “is the first Attorney General who has even offered to meet with the victims.” The post was quickly edited to replace the sentence with: “I commend Todd Blanche for doing what all his predecessors over the last two decades never did.”

Blanche has also worked with senators outside the committee, most notably with Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska. Blanche took a two-day trip to the state earlier this month, where he met with local and tribal leaders.

The department agreed to an $180 million settlement with Anchorage over unfinished work on the port of Alaska, dropped two Biden-era lawsuits about the state’s oil and gas production, dropped a $400 million settlement with a group that provides healthcare services to American Indians and Alaska Natives, and awarded $6.1 million in grants to local law enforcement, tribal governments, and nonprofits to combat crime.