By Doina Chiacu and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed he would make acting Attorney General Todd Blanche permanent as the top U.S. law enforcement officer, giving a vote of confidence to his former personal lawyer who has faced criticism from Republican lawmakers in recent days.
“He’s a very talented guy. Todd’s doing a very good job at DOJ,” Trump said in an interview with “Pod Force One” broadcast on Wednesday.
Asked if Blanche would be the next U.S. attorney general, Trump said, “I think he will.”
Trump did not say when he might make a nomination, which would have to be approved by the Senate.
Blanche’s stint as acting attorney general is set to expire around late October, but it could be extended if Trump nominates him or someone else for the position. Blanche would need near-unanimous Republican support in the Senate, which Republicans control by a narrow 53-47 margin.
FUND PLAN DRAWS FIERCE OPPOSITION
Blanche has faced backlash from Republican senators, and even some White House aides, over the Justice Department’s now-scuttled plan to create a $1.8 billion fund for victims of alleged government “weaponization.”
Blanche said on Tuesday that the DOJ would not be moving forward with the plan, which sparked fierce bipartisan opposition and threatened to derail a $72 billion funding package for Trump’s immigration crackdown.
A Justice Department official has said Blanche was not part of negotiations to establish the fund, which emerged from a $10 billion lawsuit Trump brought against the Internal Revenue Service. But Blanche directed the fund’s creation and initially defended it as a necessary step to correct past perceived injustices.
The settlement was widely derided as a “slush fund” to benefit Trump’s political allies, given that it aimed to compensate victims of alleged mistreatment by Democrats and career government officials, not Republicans. Officials did not rule out that those convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, could receive payouts.
TRUMP DEFENDS ABANDONED PLAN
Trump, in the podcast interview, defended the fund.
“These are people that have been decimated,” he said. “And I gave them pardons. I’m very proud to have given them pardons, and I think they should be (reimbursed) for a crooked government.”
Blanche, who took over as acting attorney general in April, has won praise from Trump and his allies for bringing criminal cases against the Southern Poverty Law Center, a prominent civil rights group that has been criticized by conservatives, and former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime Trump foe.
Trump said he was happy with the pace of the Justice Department’s actions, “much more so now than at the beginning.”
Trump fired Blanche’s predecessor, Pam Bondi, in part over mounting frustration with the DOJ’s lack of progress on cases against his perceived enemies. Blanche has continued the overhaul of the Justice Department to align with Trump’s personal and political interests.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Andrew Goudsward in Washington and Kanjyik Ghosh in Barcelona; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)
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