Todd Blanche, Trump's Former Personal Defense Lawyer, Faces Senate Confirmation Hearing for Permanent Attorney General

Todd Blanche — Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney before joining the administration — faces a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing beginning July 15, 2026, for permanent appointment as Attorney General. Blanche was formally nominated June 4, 2026, after serving as Acting Deputy Attorney General and Acting AG; that nomination hearing also revealed the administration had scrapped an anti-weaponization fund (2026-06-04–blanche-nominated-permanent-ag-anti-weaponization-fund-scrapped-senate). Confirmation is not yet assured as of this writing; this entry records the hearing itself, not an outcome.

Blanche’s path to the nomination runs through the same institutional-capture arc the timeline already documents: DOJ’s Public Integrity Section reduced from 36 lawyers to two (2025-02-14–doj-public-integrity-section-gutted-adams-revolt), the Civil Rights Division’s near-total turnover under Dhillon (2026-01-29–dhillon-refocuses-civil-rights-division-voter-fraud), and a wave of unlawfully-installed U.S. Attorneys later overturned by federal courts. A former personal defense lawyer to the president being confirmed to run the Justice Department that investigates the president is the capstone appointment in that sequence.