Attorney General appointment

Roll Call - President Donald Trump will have wide latitude to keep his preferred pick leading the Justice Department after his firing of ally Pamela Bondi, including scenarios that could entirely avoid a Senate confirmation process well into the future. Any permanent attorney general nominee could face a tough path to confirmation in the Senate, where controversies and attacks against the department’s independence have outraged Democrats and at times spurred concern from some Republicans.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, already indicated in a CNN interview that he would not back an attorney general nominee who has excused the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He previously has criticized a Justice Department probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as a threat to the independence of the central bank.

Several names have been floated in news reports as potential replacements for Bondi, but the president has not announced a nominee. Meanwhile, the president’s former personal attorney, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, is leading the department as acting attorney general. Blanche, experts say, could remain as acting attorney general for many months, if not longer, depending on the consent of Senate Republican leadership and the interpretation of federal statute.