Blanche’s latest high-profile move as acting attorney general has drawn fresh opposition from Republicans who could determine whether he is ultimately confirmed to serve permanently: the Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion fund to compensate people who say they were unjustly investigated and prosecuted, and it also included immunity from tax audits for President Donald Trump and his eldest sons. The plan, described by the Justice Department, quickly turned into a political flashpoint for Blanche at a time when he is seeking to establish himself as an ally of Trump while also trying to avoid undermining the expectations that Senate Republicans may hold for the nation’s top law enforcement job.
The Justice Department’s action has placed Blanche in a Republican firestorm as lawmakers assess whether his choices reflect institutional loyalty or personal alignment. The AP report said Blanche has “sought to prove his loyalty” to Trump through a string of conspicuous steps since he took the acting attorney general position last month, including an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey—an action the report said the president has long called for. Critics in both parties have pointed to these moves as evidence that Blanche has not shed what they view as a personal-attorney mantle.
In the center of the backlash, the compensation fund announcement sparked resistance even among some Senate Republicans. The AP account said that as Republican concerns grew, Blanche met with GOP lawmakers on Thursday, and shortly afterward Senate Republicans left Washington without voting on a roughly $70 billion immigration-related bill. Blanche defended the fund at a congressional hearing, and he has said that people who believe they were persecuted can apply for compensation regardless of political affiliation, even as the fund has been “widely understood” as a benefit for Trump allies who were investigated during the Biden administration.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former Senate majority leader, criticized the proposal sharply in a statement. He said, “So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong — Take your pick,” referring to the notion that payouts could extend to people connected to violence against law enforcement. The language underscored how quickly the debate over the fund became entangled with law-enforcement-related cases and broader questions about whether DOJ policy is being shaped to serve political goals.
Blanche’s path to the attorney general’s office traces back to his prior work representing Trump in legal matters, according to the report. Before joining the Justice Department, he was a former federal prosecutor in New York who rose to prominence for his role on Trump’s defense team, including during the hush money trial, and he has said he gained firsthand insight into what he describes as weaponization of the criminal justice system against Trump. He entered the Justice Department as deputy attorney general, then was elevated last month after Trump ousted Pam Bondi.
While Republicans have challenged the fund’s framing and implications, the AP report also described Blanche’s broader agenda-setting actions in his early time leading the department. Two weeks after becoming acting attorney general, Blanche announced the appointment of Joseph diGenova, an 81-year-old former Justice Department prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to a special position in the department overseeing a Florida-based investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired over the last decade to undermine Trump. In a Fox News Channel interview, Blanche said, “At some point, at the right time, that will be made public and the American people will see exactly what happened to this administration and President Trump over the past decade.”
The AP report also said the Justice Department last month obtained an indictment charging James Comey and that legal experts said the case could be challenging for prosecutors. It added that Comey said he would not be surprised if DOJ pursued additional indictments against him. Beyond Comey, Blanche also announced an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with allegedly misleading donors about its activities, and he publicly defended DOJ’s crackdown on leaks to news media, including subpoenas to reporters.
Democrats and other Blanche critics, meanwhile, argued that the fund and other actions reinforce a view that Blanche has stayed too close to the president’s interests. The report said Blanche’s defenders dismiss the suggestion that he is currying favor for the job, and it quoted one former U.S. attorney from Alabama during the first Trump administration saying Blanche is “seeking justice based on facts and the law” and that it will “never” change. It also said Blanche told reporters he would be honored to be nominated but that he has no aspirations beyond that, including stating that if Trump asks him to do something else, he would respond with gratitude and no goals.
Even as Blanche tried to position himself as an institutional operator rather than a political emissary, the report said his role in selling and implementing the fund has made him its most visible defender, including holding multiple press conferences in recent days. It also said Blanche refused to rule out the possibility that violent Jan. 6 rioters could be eligible for payouts, a stance that drew backlash. The AP account reported that Blanche will appoint five commissioners to process claims, but it said his precise role in the fund’s conception and implementation remains unclear, and it quoted him as telling CNN that the idea was developed through negotiations with Trump’s private lawyers rather than with him.
The dispute has also played out in direct exchanges with lawmakers. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, confronted Blanche during a combative Senate hearing and told him, “Mr. Attorney General, you are acting today like the president’s personal attorney,” adding, “and that’s the whole problem.”