President Trump on Monday nominated his former personal lawyer Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, elevating a loyal and trusted ally who as the acting attorney general has shown a willingness to execute Mr. Trump’s maximalist demands.
The announcement, teased by White House officials last week, comes as public scrutiny of Mr. Blanche intensifies over his role in an administration push for a $1.8 billion fund with taxpayer money to pay those claiming they were victims of government mistreatment, most likely including rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The nomination was disclosed in a notice on Monday on the White House’s website, saying that Mr. Trump had sent Mr. Blanche’s name to the Senate.
It remains unclear if Mr. Blanche, who promoted an expansive view of executive power at the expense of the legislative branch both as Mr. Trump’s defense lawyer and as the Justice Department’s second in command, will have sufficient support in the Senate to be confirmed as tensions grow between the White House and congressional Republicans.
A confirmation hearing for Mr. Blanche could pose a tricky political test for Republicans as the party prepares for midterm elections this year. A recent closed-door meeting between Mr. Blanche and Senate Republicans was described as blistering, with dozens of lawmakers sharply criticizing Mr. Blanche over the $1.8 billion fund.
Senators, however, failed to pass restrictions on any such payouts, suggesting their unhappiness with the White House may have ebbed.
His path to the permanent appointment he has long coveted will also be complicated by lingering anger — and unanswered questions — related to his handling of the release of millions of pages of investigative files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In recent weeks, his predecessor, Pam Bondi, who was fired in April after Mr. Trump privately vented over her failed efforts to prosecute his political enemies, placed primary responsibility for the release of the Epstein files on Mr. Blanche during an interview with a House committee.
Mr. Blanche, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, has shed his reputation as a mildly moderating voice within the department as he has energetically pursued a job whose main prerequisite, in the view of current and former officials, is never saying no to the boss.
A wide range of former law enforcement officials have sharply criticized Mr. Blanche’s brand of justice, saying he has deployed prosecutorial power to punish Mr. Trump’s perceived foes, and in the process badly damaged the department’s reputation with the courts and the public.
As acting attorney general, Mr. Blanche has taken a series of actions against Trump targets, including greenlighting the indictment of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, for posting to social media an image of seashells arrayed to read “86-47,” which Mr. Blanche has described as a credible threat of violence against a sitting president. (The phrase “86” is a slang term evolved from restaurant parlance for throwing something out, and “47” refers to Mr. Trump, the nation’s 47th president.)
Mr. Blanche expressed internal reservations about the highly unusual plan to establish the fund, which also included a broad shelter from tax investigations for Mr. Trump, his family and his businesses that could be worth more than $100 million.
But Mr. Blanche and one of his top aides, Stanley Woodward Jr., signed off on the plan, unlike some first-term Trump appointees who resigned or offered fierce resistance when confronted with demands they considered questionable. It was immediately assailed as a political slush fund by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Testifying before lawmakers last week, Mr. Blanche said the Justice Department was giving up the plan for the fund but would keep Mr. Trump’s shelter from tax investigations in place. Mr. Trump later cast doubt on the abandoning of the fund, saying, “I love it.”
“Todd Blanche has never stopped acting as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer,” said Stacey Young, the founder of Justice Connection, an organization of former department employees that includes many career prosecutors forced out by Mr. Blanche as he has sought to reshape the department to Mr. Trump’s liking.
“He has used his high position at the department to enter into a corrupt deal with the president and his family, advance vindictive prosecutions, illegally fire career employees, smear whistle-blowers and attack the judiciary,” she added.
The fund was the result of secret talks between Mr. Trump’s private lawyers and officials working for Mr. Blanche, as a means of settling a $10 billion lawsuit Mr. Trump had filed against the government over the leak of his tax returns, and unrelated claims for about $230 million that Mr. Trump had filed against the Justice Department and the F.B.I. over past investigations and prosecutions.
Mr. Blanche and his team sought to create a settlement that would prevent the government from paying taxpayer money to Mr. Trump, which they saw as a potential ethical, legal and political catastrophe.
In his testimony to lawmakers last Tuesday, Mr. Blanche insisted the protection of Mr. Trump and his family from tax audits or investigations would not be affected by the withdrawal of the fund proposal, and would remain in place.
“So the blanket immunity is not something that you’re going to move back on?” asked Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, who accused Mr. Blanche of prioritizing the president’s financial interests over the public good.
“You do not belong in this job,” she added.
But Mr. Trump, who has said he owes his freedom to Mr. Blanche’s hard-nosed legal efforts on his behalf in the criminal cases against him, appears to believe otherwise.
Mr. Blanche first gained the confidence of Mr. Trump while he was out of office, battling multiple investigations and indictments. Mr. Blanche became Mr. Trump’s defense lawyer in 2023, and represented him when he went on trial a year later in New York City; Mr. Trump was convicted on charges of falsifying business records.
Since becoming the deputy attorney general in early 2025, Mr. Blanche has executed sweeping changes at the Justice Department, where he has proudly described firing more than 200 agents and prosecutors who worked on cases involving Mr. Trump or his allies. He has also talked of being at war with federal judges.
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
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