Todd Blanche, Trump’s acting attorney general and former personal lawyer, faces a newly precarious path to permanent confirmation following the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Graham’s sudden death at 71 on Saturday removes a crucial ally from the Senate Judiciary Committee just days before the panel is scheduled to hold a high-stakes confirmation hearing for Blanche, with Republicans facing the prospect of a defection killing the nomination.
According to a report from Bloomberg Law, the timing couldn’t be worse for Blanche. With Republicans controlling the Judiciary Committee by just a single vote, the loss of Graham — who had vocally backed Blanche’s nomination — strips away a powerful voice needed to counter growing GOP concerns about the nominee’s independence from White House influence.
Blanche must now navigate a committee where he expected to be under the gun from critical Democrats and Republicans alike.
“He [Graham] was engaged and a powerful voice on the committee when he would participate in these high-profile matters,” Mike Fragoso told Bloomberg.
The report notes that during his leadership of the committee in the latter half of Trump’s first term, he proved instrumental in pushing through controversial nominees, adding that the South Carolina Republican “played a critical role in shepherding younger conservatives, including by pushing Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett through the committee in 2020.”
“Especially since his tenure as chairman, he had been more dependable for the GOP, particularly on nominations,” said Gregg Nunziata, a former chief nominations counsel for Senate Republicans.
Sara Zdeb, an Emory University law professor, told Bloomberg, “Unanimous Republican support still means a nominee will be voted out of committee, and a single Republican no vote still means they won’t.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) acknowledged Graham’s passing in a social media post Sunday but has not indicated whether the scheduled confirmation hearings for July 15 and 16 will proceed as planned.
“Senate Judiciary Republicans John Cornyn (TX) and Thom Tillis (NC) have been especially vocal about their concerns with Blanche’s level of insulation from Trump’s influence. Cornyn said after a meeting with Blanche last month that the nominee had committed to briefing senators on the tax audit immunity,” the report added.