2026-08-07T10:54:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
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更新时间：2026年8月7日 / 美国东部时间上午11:08 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
华盛顿讯 — 路易斯安那州共和党参议员比尔·卡西迪周五宣布，他将支持托德·布兰查德的司法部长提名，为布兰查德永久领导司法部扫清了道路。
“布兰查德先生并非完美无缺，他自己也会这么说，但我们的选择并非在完美和布兰查德先生之间做出，”卡西迪在参议院发表支持声明时说道。“我们的选择是在布兰查德先生和另一位代理司法部长之间做出，后者可能无法在特朗普总统任期内有效管理司法部，甚至可能不如布兰查德先生。”
有了卡西迪的支持，布兰查德预计将以微弱优势获得司法部长提名确认。尽管共和党掌控参议院，但鉴于参议员米奇·麦康奈尔缺席，布兰查德最多只能失去两名共和党参议员的选票，仍能获得这位美国最高执法官员职位的批准。
缅因州共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯和阿拉斯加州共和党参议员丽莎·穆尔科斯基已经宣布计划反对布兰查德的提名，这让卡西迪成为决定性的一票。预计所有民主党人都将投票反对布兰查德出任司法部长。
参议院计划在周五就多项共和党优先议题进行投票，随后离开华盛顿进行为期五周的休会。目前尚不清楚参议院是否会在这次快速表决中就布兰查德的确认投票，因为加快这一进程需要民主党人的同意。
卡西迪在参议院演讲中表示，在布兰查德和另一位代理司法部长之间做出选择“会危及我们在打击暴力犯罪、人口贩运、毒品贩运和欺诈方面取得的进展”。
“这不符合美国人民的利益，”他说。“这不是对特朗普总统的全民公投。这是在非常具体的情况下关于布兰查德先生的决定。经过全面考虑，我将投票支持布兰查德先生。”
布兰查德的提名
特朗普先生于今年6月宣布布兰查德为司法部长提名人选，以接替他在4月罢免的帕姆·邦迪。布兰查德曾是总统的前私人辩护律师，自邦迪被解雇以来，他一直担任代理司法部长。
但他的确认之路一直岌岌可危，因为关键共和党参议员对布兰查德在设立18亿美元“反武器化”基金一事中所扮演的角色提出异议，该基金旨在向那些声称自己遭到联邦政府不公平 targeting 的人提供赔偿。
参议员们担忧，在2021年1月6日袭击美国国会大厦事件中袭击执法人员的定罪被告，可能会获得纳税人资助的赔偿。卡西迪是2021年2月特朗普第二次弹劾审判中投票判定特朗普犯有煽动叛乱罪的七名共和党议员之一。当时特朗普的第一任期已经结束，他在参议院被宣告无罪。
这笔“反武器化”基金是特朗普总统5月与美国国税局达成的和解协议的一部分，该协议旨在解决他因前政府承包商泄露其纳税申报单而提起的100亿美元民事诉讼。
除了这项18亿美元的计划，司法部还同意给予特朗普先生及其家人和相关实体全面豁免，使其免受税务审计和调查。
卡西迪表示，布兰查德批准“反武器化”基金并给予总统税务调查豁免权的行为“判断力不佳”。这位路易斯安那州参议员还表示，他对“针对特朗普先生认为的政治敌人的起诉感到担忧”，不过他补充道，“两党总统都曾有过这种行为”。
“这种情况必须停止，现在就应该停止，”他说。“永无止境的起诉政治敌人的循环会破坏法治，削弱公众对我们司法机构的信任，并在我们需要团结起来解决当今重大问题的时候，让我们的政治更加极端化。”
参议员比尔·卡西迪于2026年8月7日周五在参议院发表讲话。参议院电视台
尽管如此，他表示布兰查德“因一些他无法控制的事情受到批评”，比如总统对1月6日袭击相关定罪被告的赦免。
对“反武器化”基金和豁免协议的反对曾威胁到布兰查德的提名，不过他在确认听证会上试图缓解参议员们的担忧。
这位代理司法部长告诉参议员们，该基金已经“胎死腹中”，司法部与参议院司法委员会的两名关键共和党议员——德克萨斯州的约翰·康恩和北卡罗来纳州的汤姆·蒂利斯——进行了数周谈判，于本周早些时候获得了他们对布兰查德的支持。
为了赢得他们的支持，布兰查德发布了一项新命令，撤销了5月份设立“反武器化”基金的指令，并澄清了特朗普先生税务豁免协议的范围。
达成协议后，参议院司法委员会周二以党派投票结果将布兰查德的提名推进至全院参议院。
但除了“反武器化”基金和针对特朗普先生的豁免协议外，布兰查德还因司法部处理超过300万页文件的方式受到参议员们的审查，这些文件来自对定罪性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的调查，以及他去年与爱泼斯坦的前女友吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦的会面，麦克斯韦因性贩运罪被判处20年监禁。
布兰查德在确认听证会上承认，一些爱泼斯坦文件存在“失误”，其中包含了他性贩运活动受害者的未编辑姓名和个人信息。在蒂利斯表示除非布兰查德这样做否则将 withhold 支持后，他已于上月在司法部与爱泼斯坦罪行的幸存者进行了会面。
但一些幸存者批评布兰查德在会面中的行为，其中一人将其描述为为确认其提名而进行的“走过场的仪式”。他们敦促参议员们否决他的提名。
Cassidy backs Blanche for attorney general, clearing way for confirmation
2026-08-07T10:54:00-0400 / CBS News
By
Updated on: August 7, 2026 / 11:08 AM EDT / CBS News
Washington — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana announced Friday that he will support Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, clearing the way for him to lead the Justice Department in a permanent capacity.
“Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this, but the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,” Cassidy said in remarks on the Senate floor announcing his support. “It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”
With Cassidy’s backing, Blanche is expected to clinch his confirmation for attorney general, though by a narrow margin. While Republicans control the Senate, Blanche could only afford to lose the votes of two GOP senators and still win approval for the role of the nation’s top law enforcement official given Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska had already announced their plans to oppose Blanche’s nomination, making Cassidy the decisive vote. All Democrats are expected to vote against Blanche for attorney general.
The Senate is planning to hold votes on a number of GOP prioritieson Friday before leaving Washington for a five-week recess. It’s unclear whether the chamber will vote on Blanche’s confirmation as part of that sprint, since speeding up the process would require consent from Democrats.
In his Senate floor speech, Cassidy said the choice between Blanche and a different acting attorney general “puts at risk the progress made fighting violent crime, human and drug trafficking, and fraud.”
“This does not serve the American people well,” he said. “This is not a referendum on President Trump. It is a decision regarding Mr. Blanche in very specific circumstances. All considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche.”
Blanche’s nomination
Mr. Trump announced Blanche as his nominee for attorney general in June to replace Pam Bondi, whom he ousted in April. Blanche, who was the president’s former personal defense lawyer, has been serving as acting attorney general since Bondi’s firing.
But his path to confirmation has been tenuous, as key Republican senators took issue with Blanche’s role in establishing the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund designed to provide payouts to people who alleged they had been unfairly targeted by the federal government.
Senators raised concerns that defendants convicted of assaulting law enforcement during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol could be given taxpayer-backed payments. Cassidy was among the seven Republicans who voted to convict Mr. Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection during his second impeachment trial in February 2021. The president, whose first term had already ended, was acquitted by the upper chamber.
The “anti-weaponization” fund was part of a settlement agreement the president reached with the IRS in May to resolve a $10 billion civil lawsuit he filed over the leak of his tax returns by a former government contractor.
In addition to the $1.8 billion program, the Justice Department also agreed to grant Mr. Trump, members of his family and affiliated entities sweeping immunity from tax audits and investigations.
Cassidy said Blanche demonstrated “poor judgment” by approving the “anti-weaponization” fund and granting the president immunity from tax probes. The Louisiana senator said that he is also “concerned” with prosecutions against Mr. Trump’s perceived political enemies, though he added that “presidents of both parties have been guilty of this.”
“It must stop. It should stop now,” he said. “A never-ending cycle of prosecuting political enemies undermines the rule of law, degrades the public’s trust in our institutions, and makes our politics more extreme when we need to unite to solve the big problems of our time.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy speaks on the Senate floor on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. Senate TV
Still, he said Blanche is “criticized for things over which he has no control,” such as the president’s pardons for defendants convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack.
Pushback to the “anti-weaponization” fund and the immunity deal threatened to derail Blanche’s nomination, though he tried to assuage senators’ concerns during his confirmation hearing.
While the acting attorney general told senators that the fund was “dead,” the Justice Department negotiated for weeks with two key Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, before securing their backing for Blanche earlier this week.
To earn their support, Blanche issued a new order rescinding a May directive that established the “anti-weaponization” fund and clarified the scope of the tax immunity deal for Mr. Trump.
Following the agreement, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to advance Blanche’s nomination to the Senate floor.
But beyond the “anti-weaponization” fund and immunity deal for Mr. Trump, Blanche also came under scrutiny from senators for the Justice Department’s handling of the release of more than 3 million pages of documents from its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as his meeting last year with Ghislaine Maxwell, a former girlfriend of Epstein’s who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
Blanche acknowledged during his confirmation hearing that “mistakes were made” with some of the Epstein documents, which contained the unredacted names and personal information of victims of his sex-trafficking operation. He also met with survivors of Epstein’s crimes at the Justice Department last month after Tillis said he would withhold support until Blanche did so.
But some of the survivors criticized Blanche for his conduct during the meeting, with one describing it as a “check-the-box exercise” designed to secure votes for his confirmation. They urged senators to reject his nomination.
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