WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner on Friday formally ended a three-month standoff with the Justice Department over federal marijuana law enforcement, saying he received assurances from President Donald Trump that the agency wouldn’t interfere with Colorado’s marijuana industry.

In an announcement met with caution by industry observers, Gardner said he wouldn’t block any more Senate-confirmable Justice nominees. He undertook that protest after a controversial January decision by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to void an Obama-era policy that generally left alone states that had legalized the drug.

Trump’s pledge came during a long phone conversation Wednesday night, Gardner said.

The president affirmed his commitment to “protect Colorado” and went a step further by getting behind the idea a federal bill that would ensure the safety of marijuana regimes in states across the nation, Gardner said.

Trump told him: “You have my support for a legislative solution that will allow a states’ rights approach,” Gardner said.

But Justice Department officials — including Sessions — were not a party to the senator’s conversations with Trump and White House officials, Gardner said, who deferred comment to the agency.

Justice Department officials did not respond to an email and phone call seeking comment.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Trump and Gardner spoke about the issue, but she did not address how the directive would be handled by the Justice Department or the administration.

“We’re always consulting Congress about issues, including states’ rights, of which the president is a firm believer,” she said during a press briefing.

Others expressed skepticism about any such agreement.

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat and the co-founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, called Gardner’s announcement “another head-spinning moment.”

“We should hope for the best, but not take anything for granted,” Blumenauer said in a statement. “Trump changes his mind constantly, and Republican leadership is still in our way.”

Cannabis industry leaders reacted to Gardner’s announcement with tempered enthusiasm.

“The important thing is that we need to see legislation come from Congress and get to the president’s desk,” said Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, the Washington, D.C.-based trade association for the legal marijuana industry.

Officials with Colorado Leads, a Denver-based organization of more than 50 cannabis companies, said Gardner’s actions could help ensure a stable business climate for the state’s cannabis industry. Among the critical legislative fixes needed are those that would allow cannabis businesses to openly bank and file federal taxes without unreasonable penalties, officials for the organization said in a statement.

“Conquering these issues will support responsible growth of the industry and further ensure public safety,” said Chuck Smith, Colorado Leads’ board president.

The accord trumpeted by Gardner is the latest turn in a fight that began in early January. After Sessions said he was rescinding the Cole memo, Gardner took to the Senate floor and angrily denounced the decision, saying it would put “thousands of jobs at risk.”

He concluded the speech with the vow to block all future nominees to the Justice Department, including agency officials, U.S. marshals and U.S. attorneys.

The blockade stood in place for weeks, at one point stopping as many as 11 nominees from getting a Senate floor vote. The future of more than 20 others also was put in doubt.

That changed Feb. 15, when Gardner said he would lift his hold on all but a few of the nominees. The same day, the Senate cleared several Justice nominees, including U.S. marshal candidates from Kentucky, home to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Iowa, home to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley.

In return, Gardner said he made headway with Justice Department officials. The agency had “moved more and more” toward agreeing to “concrete protections in Colorado for our state’s voters when it comes to decisions they made related to marijuana,” said Gardner at the time.

It was Gardner’s conversation with Trump, however, that appears to have broken the logjam. Moving forward, one remaining question is the nature of the states’ rights legislation that Gardner and Trump discussed.

The language of such a bill is a work in progress, and the timing is nebulous. But Gardner indicated that the measure would look far different than the appropriations riders that were put in place in recent years to protect state-legal medical marijuana programs.

Known as Rohrabacher-Blumenauer, the provisions knot the purse strings of the Justice Department in efforts to interfere with state programs allowing medical marijuana cultivation, possession, use and sale.

That amendment doesn’t address the ongoing conflict for these state-legal regimes: that marijuana is illegal at the federal level, Gardner said.

The solution needs to be grounded in states’ rights and allow the states to determine for themselves if they want to establish regulated marijuana programs, he said.

Cannabis-related bills have been stymied in Congress. Bills covering all aspects of cannabis — including banking access, tax penalties, furthering research and allowing states to regulate marijuana like alcohol — have languished in committees.

Gardner said his legislation-in-waiting would encapsulate many, if not all, of those issues brought to Congress in piecemeal. His bill should have better odds at success, he said.

“We have the president’s support,” he said. “You have 30-some states that have addressed this issues in one way or another.”