President Donald Trump announced at a closed-door event Wednesday evening that he will be nominating acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to permanently fill the role left by Pam Bondi since her April resignation. Blanche, who represented the president during his 2024 hush-money trial in New York, has been serving as the acting attorney general since Bondi vacated her position. 

Since taking his position as acting attorney general, Blanche’s Department of Justice has taken controversial steps, including indicting the former FBI director James Comey over alleged threats posted on social media and attempting to establish a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which would compensate those unfairly targeted by the Biden Department of Justice.

In a House hearing before the announcement Wednesday, Blanche stressed that the monetary fund would not be pursued following strong backlash but that “nothing has changed” about the deal’s agreement to shield the president from further probes. 

Bondi was reportedly compelled to resign for her failure to adequately handle the release of the Epstein files and poor defense of the administration’s policies. The president publicly announced in early April that she would be “transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector” following her departure from the administration.