Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday that the Justice Department, under his leadership, would not recommend a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the only convicted co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein now serving 20 years in prison for her part in the sex trafficking scheme.

“I can commit to that, of course,” he said in response to a question from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

The decision to pardon Maxwell, however, is ultimately up to President Donald Trump, who has not ruled out such an action. Her lawyer has said that she intends to seek clemency to avoid having to serve out the entirety of her sentence and that he believes a pardon is likely.

Blanche, serving in his capacity as the deputy attorney general, interviewed Maxwell in a Florida U.S. attorney’s office last summer over the course of a two day meeting. There, Maxwell said that she never saw Trump engage in impropriety and that she “admire[d] his extraordinary achievement.”

Shortly afterward, Maxwell was transferred to a minimum security prison camp, a move criticized by many as a kind of reward from the administration for Maxwell. Blanche has defended the decision, citing worries about her safety.

Under questioning by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Blanche also apologized for his agency’s failure to redact the names, faces and sometimes even nude images of alleged victims as part of the DOJ release of the Epstein files.

“Any time we release a victim’s name that shouldn’t be released, we have failed as a Department of Justice,” Blanche said, adding to Murray: “I hear your anger.”

He argued that the law passed by Congress last year to compel the release of the Epstein files created significant logistical challenges by requiring disclosure of nearly all Epstein-related records within 30 days.

“It required us to review over six million pieces of paper in a very short period of time, and so, 0.001 percent, we made mistakes, and we owned up to them,” Blanche said.

Senate Republicans advanced part of their immigration enforcement bill Tuesday as they aim to get the package to President Donald Trump’s desk in a matter of days.

The party-line vote of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee followed several unsuccessful attempts by panel Democrats to add new restrictions on the administration’s immigration enforcement operations. That included amendments to require judicial warrants for searches and apprehensions and to keep federal agents out of polling places, among others.

Democrats also sought without avail to address issues not included in the committee’s portion of the bill — including funding the administration has requested for security measures for Trump’s proposed White House ballroom.

The effort by Democrats to attach the new law enforcement rules comes after bipartisan negotiations on that topic fell apart earlier this year, leading to a record 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

“We are doing this whole irresponsible and hyper-partisan spending exercise because the Republican majority does not want to pass common sense reforms,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the Homeland Security panel.

Panel Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who said earlier this year he was open to new immigration enforcement rules, warned that amendments from Democrats would “kill the bill” because they had not been litigated by the parliamentarian to ensure they fit within the strict rules governing the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process.

“They have no one to blame but themselves,” Paul said of his Democratic colleagues. “While there could have been a discussion over reforms and bipartisan compromise on this, it didn’t happen because the Democratic base decided they weren’t going to fund ICE.”

The committee vote comes as Republicans are still trying to lock down the votes for their bill because of concerns — and, in some cases, outright opposition — from some members to the $1 billion Secret Service line item that could go toward parts of the White House ballroom.

Peters criticized the Secret Service security funding arguing that it showed the “fecklessness” of Republicans in the face of Trump’s demands.

“Clearly he lied — he said it would never be built with taxpayer monies,” Peters said of Trump. “It’s time to stand up to the president’s ridiculous demands.”

Paul, who has been critical of using taxpayer funding toward the project, noted that the security language is not included in the Homeland Security panel’s portion of the bill.

Sens. James Lankford and Jacky Rosen will introduce a sweeping, bipartisan bill Tuesday aimed at combating antisemitism.

The bill, which was first shared with Blue Light News, would target antisemitism in education and online, as well as provide security grant funding.

“Those are three big issues that get talked about the most, so we tried to pull those together into one bill,” Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, said in an interview. “We are trying to do this bipartisan, bicameral.”

Rosen, a Nevada Democrat who co-chairs the Senate’s bipartisan task force for combating antisemitism with Lankford, said in an interview the bill was “personal” and has “been over a year in the making.”

“It really is a coordinated federal response to help fight domestic antisemitism,” she added.

The measure would require the Department of Education to designate an antisemitism coordinator and lay out new regulations to combat antisemitism at colleges that receive DOE funding, including requiring those colleges to establish non-discrimination policies and grievance processes.

It would also boost nonprofit security grant funding to $1 billion that can be used by Jewish communities, as well create a new grant that can be used for places of worship. The bill would, in addition, require new disclosures about how online platforms moderate and respond to antisemitic content.

Rosen noted that she and Lankford will talk to their respective party leaders about how to advance the legislation — including looking at potential vehicles like a sweeping defense policy package — to get it through the Senate.

A companion bill is expected to be soon introduced in the House and the proposal has support from more than a dozen outside groups, including the American Jewish Committee, ADL and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

“This legislation represents one of the strongest congressional responses we have seen to the alarming rise in antisemitism and targeted violence against the Jewish community,” said Eric Fingerhut, the Jewish Federations of North America president and CEO.