WASHINGTON — The US Senate voted 70–30 on Wednesday to confirm Merrick Garland as President Joe Biden’s first US attorney general, nearly five years to the day after he was nominated to the Supreme Court in a bid that was blocked by Republicans.

Garland leaves behind a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals judge to take over the Justice Department in the middle of a sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. With more than 300 people charged to date and hundreds more under investigation, Garland said at his confirmation hearing last month that shepherding these prosecutions would be his top priority.