Senate trade-off: More Obama judges, Trump gets nominees

In the years that followed, the Senate confirmed almost 100 federal judges nominated by Obama, bringing to 329 the number of judicial nominees confirmed during Obama's term in office.

Outgoing Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid engineered the changes, dubbed the "nuclear option" because of the intensity they could add to partisanship, after Republicans blocked many of Obama's nominees.

Nan Aron, the president of the liberal judicial advocacy group Alliance for Justice, says that if the rules hadn't been changed, Trump would now be filling seats on the D.C. circuit and other courts.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat who will replace Reid as minority leader, says the pressure will now be on Republicans, "many of whom had serious qualms with the (presidential) campaign that was run, to determine whether these nominees will be fit to lead these agencies."

Pompeo has rejected accusations that U.S. intelligence and military personnel were "torturers" for harshly interrogating terror suspects captured after 9/11, saying they were "patriots."