Congress
What’s in store for Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing
The GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee should be a friendly place for President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, but Todd Blanche may be about to enter a minefield.
Democrats are promising to make Blanche’s Wednesday confirmation hearing an indictment of his record as Trump’s former personal lawyer — and, more recently, as the face of the haphazard rollout of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the thwarted launch of a $1.8 billion fund to pay out “victims” of “lawfare” that critics called a slush fund benefitting Trump’s allies.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Senate Judiciary Democrat, accused Blanche of “aiding and abetting the most corrupt administration in history,” and plans to push him on the “botched release of the Epstein Files, the MAGA slush fund for cop beaters, the Trump-IRS sweetheart deal, and his crypto corruption.”
Across the aisle, GOP committee members John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina will be leaving office at the end of this term and have little left to lose in bucking Trump. Both men have signaled their support for Blanche could hinge on how he answers a host of questions on the controversial settlement that led to the establishment of the “anti-weaponization fund.” Mainly, they want assurances that the fund is dead.
A federal court ruling Monday suggesting that Blanche could face discipline for his handling of that settlement has only raised the stakes for Cornyn, who said that while he “wan[ted] to do the right thing,” he also “want[ed] an attorney general who will enforce the law and who won’t be just a lawyer for the president. I haven’t finally decided yet.”
While Tillis said his “posture right now is a ‘yes’” vote on Blanche, he cautioned that he still had “issues” with the fund that must be addressed.
Assuming members of the Judiciary Committee vote along party lines to advance Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate, a single GOP defection could derail his path. It means that Blanche is under enormous pressure to perform Wednesday without any missteps — and any unforced errors could make it harder for Republican leaders to confirm him before the month-long August recess.
There have been signs in recent days that Blanche has been seeking to smooth things over for himself ahead of his confirmation hearing. He was on Capitol Hill Tuesday for meetings with lawmakers, including Durbin, who said Blanche told him he “made a mistake” in his handling of the now-defunct “anti-weaponization fund.”
Blanche has also been working to make inroads with GOP senators off the Judiciary Committee, too. In the past week, he’s embarked on a multi-day tour of Alaska, home to moderate GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, where he announced a nearly $200 million settlement between the Justice Department and Anchorage over a port expansion project.
Murkowski said Tuesday she still has some “specific follow ups” for Blanche.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who faces a competitive reelection campaign this November, said Tuesday she has “not made a decision” on Blanche, explaining that she was waiting to see what comes from the hearing.
Blanche — who can afford to lose only two Republican votes on the Senate floor, assuming the vote is along party lines — will answer questions from lawmakers Wednesday. A panel of outside witnesses will testify Thursday about Blanche’s character.
Republicans have invited former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who served under President George W. Bush; John Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association; and Jennifer Bos, who has advocated for tough immigration policies after her daughter was murdered by an undocumented immigrant.
Democrats are calling Danielle Bensky, a survivor of Epstein’s sex crimes whose name was inadvertently revealed as part of the release of the Epstein files. They’re also calling former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats want to gin up more consternation about the way Blanche handled the public disclosure of the Epstein case files in the Justice Department’s possession when he was deputy attorney general.
After a series of blunders by his predecessor Pam Bondi, Blanche served as a public face of a rollout that was marred by redaction errors and criticized by some lawmakers — and Epstein victims — as improperly protective of Trump and other powerful men mentioned in the files.
According to an aide for a Democrat who serves on the Judiciary Committee — granted anonymity to share private party strategy — Democrats intend to ask Blanche about his trip to Florida last summer to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, the only convicted Epstein co-conspirator, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Following her meetings with Blanche, Maxwell was transferred to a lower-security prison — a move Blanche has defended as stemming from security concerns, but which others argue was a reward for saying she never witnessed any wrongdoing from Trump throughout the president’s onetime friendship with Epstein.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) plans to ask Blanche about his role in pardoning rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and “his failure to investigate violations of law involving the pardons.”
Blanche may also face scrutiny over the Justice Department’s politically charged prosecutions and investigations of Trump’s perceived foes, including former FBI Director James Comey, former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Senate Judiciary Democrats’ strategy could also be informed by their counterparts across the Capitol. The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, sent a letter to Blanche Tuesday demanding he respond to recent accusations made by federal judges that Trump Justice Department attorneys are violating court orders, providing misleading or false information to the courts, or withholding crucial information during sensitive litigation.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is prepared to counter Democrats by focusing his opening statement Wednesday on highlighting “the outpouring of bipartisan support for Blanche’s nomination, in contrast to Democrat smear tactics,” according to a Judiciary GOP aide.
But while these Democratic lines of inquiry could make things uncomfortable for Blanche, all eyes will be on the Republican members of the committee, particularly Cornyn and Tillis.
Blanche will have to thread a delicate needle as to why he canceled plans for the anti-weaponization fund only after public outcry and private revolt by Senate Republicans — and what his intentions for the effort would have been, otherwise.
He also has so far refused to make a declaration in writing that he will not seek to revive the fund at some later date, which could be a problem for skeptical Republicans.
“I have to say — I have to know with certainty that that fund … it’s just got to be ended,” Tillis said Tuesday. “ It’s bad optics. It’s bad policy … It’s got to go.”
Jordain Carney, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein contributed to this report