WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general early Saturday by a vote of 50-49, giving President Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer permanent authority over a Justice Department he has already been running on an acting basis since April.

The vote came after 4 a.m., with a late-night session running into the early hours ahead of a scheduled Senate recess. Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined every Democrat in opposing him. Blanche moved into the acting role in April after Trump forced out Pam Bondi, whom the president faulted for the department’s lack of action against his political opponents.

Blanche said afterward that he was “deeply honored by the trust and confidence” Trump had placed in him, noting he becomes the nation’s 88th attorney general and thanking senators for staying late to finish the process.

The Fight Was Not Where It Looked

The obstacle was not Democratic opposition, which was never in doubt. It was rare Republican pushback that left the nomination genuinely in question.

The sticking point was a $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund inside the department. The fund grew out of a settlement between Trump and the IRS over the leak of the president’s tax returns, and was intended to pay people who claimed the federal government had been turned against them. After the fund drew legal challenges, Blanche gave a verbal assurance it was not moving forward — but Republican Judiciary Committee members John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both leaving Congress, demanded it in writing and held up the committee vote until they got it.

Blanche had been confirmed as deputy attorney general on a party-line vote in March of last year, but lost Republican support for the top job after a series of decisions that drew skepticism from members of his own party. Support from Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy late in the week put the count over the line.

Senator Adam Schiff of California, the most vocal Democratic opponent, argued Blanche has never shed his identity as Trump’s personal defense lawyer and would not act independently of the president.

What It Means for Companies

Blanche now holds formal authority over the department’s 93 U.S. attorneys, its Antitrust Division, national security prosecutions and department-wide litigation strategy — a workforce of more than 100,000 people.

For business, the practical exposure sits in prosecutorial discretion. The Antitrust Division decides which mergers get challenged, which industries draw civil or criminal competition probes, and how hard the government pushes on pricing, labor-market and digital-platform conduct. On the white-collar side, the choices that matter to a general counsel are cooperation credit, whether individual executives are charged alongside the company, whether monitorships are imposed as part of settlements, and how foreign bribery and sanctions-evasion cases are prioritized.

Those decisions move real numbers. Charging policy shifts affect legal reserves, the timing of announced deals, risk-factor disclosures and board compliance spending — most acutely for companies already under investigation and for banks, defense contractors, technology firms and multinational manufacturers operating in heavily regulated markets.

The turnover itself is a factor. Two confirmed attorneys general in roughly eighteen months, with a four-month acting stretch in between, is the kind of churn that makes enforcement standards harder to plan around.

What to Watch

The one-vote margin leaves Blanche without political cushion. Democrats are expected to demand oversight of politically sensitive prosecutions, while Republicans continue pressing the department to investigate what they describe as the weaponization of federal law enforcement — the same subject that nearly sank his confirmation.

The early signals will come from personnel appointments, whether any pending merger challenges are dropped or expanded, and the first corporate charging decisions filed under his signature rather than in an acting capacity.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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