June 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday formally nominated Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, moving to install his former personal lawyer as the top U.S. law enforcement official.
Trump submitted Blanche's name to the U.S. Senate, the White House said, days after committing to nominating Blanche, who has been serving as acting attorney general since April.
Blanche's nomination sets up a test of Trump's sway over Senate Republicans, who have shown an increasing willingness
to resist parts of the president's agenda after months of largely acceding to his demands. Blanche would need near-unanimous Republican support in the Senate, which Republicans control by a narrow 53-47 margin.
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 "weaponization." The plan drew fierce backlash, much of it directed at Blanche, from Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
Republican senators led the charge against the weaponization fund, refusing to vote to fund Trump's immigration crackdown until Blanche committed to scrapping the planned fund.
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a key Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has previously voiced skepticism about Blanche over the weaponization fund and a criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump has favorably viewed Blanche's moves as acting attorney general to accelerate cases against his adversaries, including securing a second indictment against Comey and bringing charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center, a prominent civil rights organization.
Following the nomination, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary panel, lauded Blanche for his "commitment to transparency and support for law enforcement."
"Blanche is well-qualified and has shown his dedication to restoring law and order across our country," Grassley said.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward in Washington and Ryan Patrick Jones and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
