US President Donald Trump has formally nominated Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, moving to install his former personal lawyer as the top US law enforcement official.
Trump submitted Blanche's nomination to the US Senate, the White House said on Monday, days after Trump committed to giving Blanche, who has been serving as acting attorney general since April, the permanent nod.
The nomination is a vote of confidence in Blanche after the Justice Department was forced to backtrack from a plan to create a nearly $1.8 billion fund for victims of what Trump has called government "weaponisation."
The plan drew fierce backlash, much of it directed at Blanche, from Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
Blanche also recently testified before Congress regarding the plan.
Blanche began his legal career as a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he served from 2006 to 2014 and rose to become co-chief of both the Violent Crimes Unit and the White Plains Division.
A graduate of American University and Brooklyn Law School, where he earned his J.D. cum laude, Blanche later moved into private practice, building a reputation as a prominent white-collar defence attorney at firms including WilmerHale and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, before founding Blanche Law.
