WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said he would move to nominate acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday to permanently lead the Justice Department, which would make his former personal lawyer the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
“He’s acting attorney General. Tomorrow. I’m instructing Dan (Scavino) and everybody else that’s involved in that very complicated process – which is going to go, I think, very quickly – that we are going to make him permanent attorney general,” Trump said at a White House event, according to a video posted on X late on Wednesday by his aide Scavino.
Blanche, 51, took over leadership of the Justice Department after Trump fired Pam Bondi in April amid tension over the agency’s release of files related to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and frustration that the department was not moving forcefully enough against the White House’s supposed political enemies.
Blanche has faced backlash from Republican senators, and even some White House aides, over the Justice Department’s now-scuttled plan to create a $1.8 billion fund for victims of alleged government “weaponization.”
He said on Tuesday that the DOJ would not be moving forward with the plan, which sparked fierce bipartisan opposition and threatened to derail a $72 billion funding package for Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Blanche would need near-unanimous Republican support in the Senate, which Republicans control by a narrow 53-47 margin.Â
Trump said in an interview broadcast Wednesday he was likely to nominate Blanche to the permanent position.  Â
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Andrew Goudsward, Jacob Bogage; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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