Trump picks criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche for No. 2 role in Justice Department

(CNN) — An attorney who has represented Donald Trump in several of the criminal cases against him has been selected by the president-elect to serve as the No. 2 lawyer at the Department of Justice.

Trump announced Thursday that Todd Blanche is his pick for deputy attorney general – a position that is subject to Senate confirmation. He also announced his selection of Emil Bove, another member of his criminal defense team, to serve as principal associate attorney general.

As deputy attorney general, Blanche would be tasked with managing the day-to-day functions of the department, while advising the attorney general on policy priorities and other issues.

Blanche played a central role in Trump’s defense teams in both the Manhattan hush-money case, which resulted in a conviction earlier this year, and the federal classified documents prosecution, which was dismissed by a judge this summer. Blanche was also involved in the federal case related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Blanche defended Trump in his only criminal trial this year as Trump’s lead attorney in the hush money case. He conducted the multi-day cross-examination of Michael Cohen and clashed on several occasions with Judge Juan Merchan, who at one point questioned Blanche’s credibility when he tried to defend Trump’s violations of the judge’s gag order.

Blanche spent several years as a federal prosecutor before entering private practice about a decade ago. When he took Trump on as a client last year, he stepped down from the white-shoe New York law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he was a partner.

This story is breaking and will be updated.