US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he intended to nominate his former personal lawyer as attorney general on a permanent basis.

Todd Blanche currently serves as acting chief of the Justice Department after Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi following scrutiny over her handling of the release of investigative files regarding late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Blanche, the former number two in the Justice Department, has since pursued indictments for Trump’s perceived enemies, including former FBI director James Comey.

Trump told guests at a White House dinner that he planned to formally nominate Blanche to the official role on Thursday, according to footage shared by a White House official on social media.

“Tomorrow, I’m instructing… that we are going to make him permanent attorney general,” Trump said in the clip shared by Dan Scavino, Trump’s deputy chief of staff.

Blanche has led the Justice Department while it attempted a contentious plan to create a $1.8 billion compensation fund that critics denounced as a “slush fund” for Trump’s political allies.

The fund was floated as part of a settlement of a lawsuit Trump filed against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with an addendum to the settlement that barred the agency from investigating Trump for back tax claims.

Blanche told Congress on Tuesday that the compensation fund would not be moving forward but Trump’s IRS protection would remain in place.

AFP