Todd Blanche was officially announced Tuesday as the acting attorney general, and he said at a Justice Department news conference that he has no “goals or aspirations.”
Blanche also made clear he is comfortable with whatever President Donald Trump decides next. “I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime,” he said. “And if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else… that’s an honor.”
The question around Blanche is not whether he wants the job. It is whether he can keep it. The article says he may be able to remain acting attorney general for the rest of Trump’s term even if he cannot win Senate confirmation, a path shaped by a precedent from the previous administration. Todd Blanche Acting Ag Memos now sit at the center of a test of how far an acting appointment can stretch before the Senate’s role starts to look optional.
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That precedent came from Julie Su. She was confirmed as deputy labor secretary in July 2021, then formally nominated by Joe Biden on March 1, 2023, to succeed Marty Walsh. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema opposed her nomination that year, and Biden had to renominate her in 2024 after the process stalled. Su was cleared by the HELP Committee again but still could not win full Senate confirmation, and she stayed on as acting secretary through the end of Biden’s presidency, a total of 22 months.
The Government Accountability Office ruled that Su could remain in place despite the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act, and the article says legal and procedural experts think GAO would reach the same conclusion for Blanche. That matters because the Su case gave presidents a way to keep a top official in place even when the Senate would not bless the nomination, a result critics say weakens advice and consent.
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Blanche brings his own political baggage to the post. He was confirmed last year on a party-line vote to serve as deputy attorney general, and last week he cheered Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters during an appearance at CPAC. Sen. Thom Tillis, the deciding vote on the Judiciary Committee, has said he will not vote for any nominee who “excused” the Capitol riot, but there is no evidence Blanche did that or otherwise praised the rioters.
Blanche was also Trump’s lead defense attorney in the high-profile criminal prosecutions of the president. So the issue now is not just whether the White House wants him to stay. It is whether the Su precedent, once used to protect a Labor Department official, has opened the door for a Justice Department post to be held in acting status for as long as the president wants.
