By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche to serve as Deputy Attorney General, the No. 2 role at the Justice Department.
Blanche was confirmed in a 52-46 vote, with all Democrats voting against his nomination.
As Deputy Attorney General, Blanche will be in charge of overseeing all 93 U.S. Attorneys across the country, as well as the department’s law enforcement components including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Blanche’s former law partner Emil Bove, who worked with him to defend Trump against federal and state criminal charges, has been serving as Acting Deputy Attorney General until Blanche could be confirmed.
Since that time, Bove has presided over the firings of top FBI officials and prosecutors who were involved with politically sensitive matters, including former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s two criminal cases against Trump and people who investigated and prosecuted rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He also ordered prosecutors to dismiss criminal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, leading eight prosecutors in Washington and New York City to resign in protest.
Once Blanche starts his job, Bove will continue working closely with Blanche as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General.
On her first day, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Deputy Attorney General’s office to launch a so-called “weaponization working group” that will be tasked with reviewing the two criminal cases brought against Trump by Smith for retaining classified documents and trying to subvert the 2020 presidential election, as well as Trump’s conviction in New York on falsifying records to hide hush-money payments to a porn star.
During his confirmation hearing, Blanche dodged questions about whether he would recuse himself from reviewing cases that he was directly involved in as Trump’s defense attorney.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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