President Donald Trump will have wide latitude to keep his preferred pick leading the Justice Department after his firing of ally Pamela Bondi, including scenarios that could entirely avoid a Senate confirmation process well into the future.
Any permanent attorney general nominee could face a tough path to confirmation in the Senate, where controversies and attacks against the department’s independence have outraged Democrats and at times spurred concern from some Republicans.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, already indicated in a CNN interview that he would not back an attorney general nominee who has excused the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He previously has criticized a Justice Department probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as a threat to the independence of the central bank.
