On June 8, 2026, the White House formally sent Todd Blanche's nomination to the Senate to serve as the next attorney general of the United States. Blanche is the man who spent years as Donald Trump's personal criminal defense lawyer, defending the sitting president against federal prosecution brought by the same Justice Department Blanche now leads in an acting capacity. The confirmation fight ahead will be among the most consequential in years, and the record Blanche carries into it is extensive.
The Lawyer Becomes the Law
Blanche represented Trump at the Blanche Law Group, his small private firm, through the criminal cases federal prosecutors brought against the former president during the Biden years. When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, Blanche was rewarded with the deputy attorney general post, confirmed by the Senate in March 2025. After Trump fired Pam Bondi in April 2026, Blanche became acting attorney general. Now Trump wants to make the arrangement permanent.
The ethical problem with this arrangement was recognized immediately. Within two weeks of Blanche joining the Justice Department, the department's top ethics lawyer, Joseph Tirrell, sat Blanche down with a printed PowerPoint presentation and told him he would need to recuse himself from any cases involving Donald Trump in his personal capacity, because Blanche had previously served as Trump's defense attorney. Blanche signed an ethics pledge promising as much.
"He is recused from many cases before DOJ. In any cases that are still ongoing where he previously represented someone, he is recused." (Justice Department spokeswoman, declining to specify which cases)
The department never disclosed the list. Tirrell, the ethics official who delivered that briefing, was fired in July 2025. He subsequently sued the Justice Department seeking compensation. Blanche is now the first person ever to serve as acting attorney general while also having been a sitting president's personal criminal defense lawyer.
Crypto Enforcement, Ended While He Held Crypto
A ProPublica investigation documented what happened in April 2025, roughly one month into Blanche's tenure as deputy attorney general. Blanche issued a memo ordering an end to all Biden-era investigations into crypto companies, dealers, and exchanges. He also eliminated the dedicated DOJ enforcement team that had been looking for crypto fraud and money-laundering schemes.
At the time he signed that memo, Blanche held at least $159,000 in crypto-related assets, including Bitcoin, and had not yet divested as required under his ethics pledge. His Bitcoin holdings alone rose 34 percent between when he issued the memo and when he ultimately transferred the assets. Six U.S. senators, citing the ProPublica investigation, wrote to Blanche accusing him of a "glaring" conflict of interest. The Campaign Legal Center filed a formal complaint with the Justice Department's acting inspector general, alleging Blanche "blatantly and improperly influenced DOJ's digital asset prosecution guidelines while standing to financially benefit."
When he did divest, Blanche transferred the crypto holdings to his adult children and a grandchild rather than selling them. Ethics experts told ProPublica the move was technically legal but directly contrary to the spirit and intent of the law, which exists to prevent officials from routing financial benefits to family members instead of eliminating the conflict.
The $1.8 Billion Fund That Came and Went
As acting attorney general, Blanche authorized the creation of a $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" as part of a settlement of Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. The fund was designed to compensate people who claimed they had been unjustly investigated or prosecuted by the Justice Department under Biden. Blanche refused to rule out payments to participants in the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack who said they were wrongly prosecuted.
Even Senate Republicans balked. Majority Leader John Thune said he was "not a big fan" and didn't see a purpose for it. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy called it a "slush fund." The backlash from both parties was severe enough that Blanche ultimately testified before Congress that the DOJ would cancel the fund entirely, making him the first official to publicly confirm its death. The fund was conceived, defended in congressional testimony, and abandoned within weeks.
The Epstein Files and Ghislaine Maxwell's Prison Transfer
When the Trump administration released the Jeffrey Epstein files, Blanche was the person running that process. Former attorney general Pam Bondi told lawmakers under oath, in a transcript released on June 4, 2026: "He was in charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files."
Blanche personally conducted a two-day interview with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell at a Florida prison, offering her limited immunity to speak freely. During that interview, Maxwell said she had never witnessed Donald Trump act in any sexually inappropriate way. Shortly after the interview concluded, Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, an unusual move for someone convicted of the offenses Maxwell committed. Bondi told the committee she had "nothing to do with" the transfer decision.
Raw Story reported that Blanche now faces accusations of witness tampering in connection with the Maxwell interview and the circumstances of the transfer. The confirmation hearing, which Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley is expected to schedule for mid-July, will almost certainly revisit all of it. Thom Tillis has already demanded Blanche publicly condemn January 6 attackers who assaulted police officers as a condition for his vote.
What the Senate Fight Will Decide
Senate Majority Leader Thune told reporters it was "hard to say" whether Blanche could win the votes for confirmation, citing concerns from members of the Judiciary Committee. The confirmation hearing is not expected before mid-July, with a floor vote likely before the August recess, if it happens at all.
The nomination places Senate Republicans in a bind. Confirming Blanche means endorsing a Justice Department where the attorney general previously defended the president against federal criminal charges, declined to clearly recuse from ongoing Trump-related matters, ended crypto enforcement while holding crypto, and personally managed the handling of evidence related to the Epstein investigation. Voting no means confronting a president who has shown he fires cabinet officials who cross him.
What is already on the record: the DOJ ethics lawyer who warned Blanche about conflicts was fired. The "Anti-Weaponization Fund" was created, used to generate headlines, and then killed. The crypto enforcement division is gone. The Epstein files were managed by the man who spent years as the president's personal lawyer, and a convicted sex trafficker got a prison upgrade shortly after telling that lawyer what he wanted to hear.
Sources
- NPR: President Trump says he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general
- CNBC: Trump nominates Todd Blanche for attorney general amid controversy over DOJ fund
- CNN: Acting AG Todd Blanche was told last year to recuse from Justice Department matters involving Trump
- CNN: Todd Blanche was 'in charge' of Epstein matter, Bondi told lawmakers, according to new transcript
- ProPublica: Complaint Accuses Todd Blanche of "Blatant" Crypto Conflict in His Role at DOJ
- Axios: Trump to nominate Todd Blanche as attorney general
- Al Jazeera: Trump nominates Todd Blanche as US attorney general, teeing up Senate fight
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