By Andrew Goudsward and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff
WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Republican Senator Bill Cassidy said he would back Todd Blanche for attorney general on Friday, clearing a path for Donald Trump's nominee for the top U.S. law enforcement job after weeks of scrutiny over decisions critics said blurred the boundary between the Justice Department and the White House.
Cassidy was left as the likely deciding vote after another moderate Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said earlier on Friday
she would oppose Blanche, leaving his nomination on the brink.
Cassidy criticized Blanche's role in settling Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service by giving tax immunity to Trump and his family businesses and creating a now-abandoned $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who allege prior government mistreatment.
But Cassidy said he trusted Blanche, who has been Trump's personal lawyer, to give the president candid legal advice.
"This is not a referendum on President Trump. It is a decision regarding Mr. Blanche in very specific circumstances," Cassidy, who represents Louisiana, said on the Senate floor. "All considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche."
Murkowski had cited her lack of confidence in Blanche, who has been the acting attorney general, to "check the worst impulses of this administration".
"I take issue with the handling of the release of the Epstein files; the sweeping immunity protections granted to the President, his family, and their businesses; the statements that have been made to anti-abortion groups; and the repeated targeting of individuals ranging from former administration staff to sitting U.S. Senators," Murkowski said in a post on social media platform X.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called Murkowski’s decision “disappointing” but said the White House was not surprised.
The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last month the DOJ said it was prohibited by law from releasing unredacted files on Jeffrey Epstein requested by New Mexico, escalating a feud with state officials investigating the late sex offender.
Susan Collins, another Republican senator, said earlier this week she would vote against Blanche's nomination, while a small number of other senators have also expressed concerns.
Senate Republican leader John Thune said he wanted to confirm Blanche before the chamber leaves Washington for a month-long recess scheduled to begin this week.
Blanche persuaded Republican holdouts John Cornyn and Thom Tillis to support him by pledging in writing that Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund was dead and that a related tax-immunity deal applied only to past tax returns.
Both arose from a settlement of Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru and Nolan McCaskill and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff in Washington; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Alexander Smith and Howard Goller)
