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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday faced what one lawmaker said was more of a performance evaluation than a job interview as he seeks to secure his post as the top law enforcement official for the country.
The tough questions came not just from Democrats, but also from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a lame duck who, after his round, told reporters he is not sold on Blanche for attorney general.
Blanche’s appearance was his second nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, who last year approved him to serve as deputy attorney general.
But this time his advancement hangs in the balance, and may rest largely in Cornyn’s hands. The Texas Republican pressed Blanche on the creation of the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that has been criticized by members of both parties.
“I continue to have some concerns, but I’m not going to make any decisions at this point,” the Republican told reporters outside the hearing room during a short recess. “I’m going to wait until we actually vote on a confirmation.”
Cornyn’s vote is crucial. Another Republican on the panel who had spoken out against the anti-weaponization fund, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), signaled during the hearing that that he was warming to Blanche.
But a single Republican “no” could bottle up Blanche’s nomination in committee.
Blanche at various turns pegged the fund as a “moot issue” and even pointed out that he was under oath in saying he had “rescinded” the document establishing the $1.776 billion fund.
But Cornyn argued the issue was not settled, as President Trump or other parties could push the matter in court.
“Just to be clear, the president of the United States, who was a plaintiff in this lawsuit, has not agreed in writing to delete the weaponization fund, and there’s no guarantee that he or one of the other plaintiffs might raise that issue by way of a lawsuit,” Cornyn said.
He also pointed to a memo Blanche signed shortly thereafter that “forever bars and precludes” Trump as well as his children and businesses from facing any prosecution or investigation, a wide-reaching document insulating them from reviews beyond just the IRS.
At one point, Blanche protested saying the agreement “binds only the IRS and by extension the Treasury.”
“I hear what you’re saying, but I certainly don’t read that in the agreement,” Cornyn said.
Democrats had plenty of opportunities of their own to excoriate Blanche and press him on the anti-weaponization fund.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) noted that the agreement indemnifies Trump for any number of crimes for which a person would typically be prosecuted.
“But the agreement you signed on behalf of your former client, on behalf of your current client, in a staggering example of self-dealing, prohibits that,” he said.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who got in a heated exchange with Blanche, quoted President Lincoln in saying that men show who they are not under adversity but rather when they have power.
“I believe you’ve had a lot of power, and so we don’t have to speculate about what has been revealed with your time in that office. We don’t need to worry about what kind of attorney general [you’d be], you’ve already had that power,” he said.
“So this isn’t a confirmation hearing. This is more of a performance review. And clearly, when it comes to the treatment of Epstein victims, when it comes to politically motivated prosecutions, when it comes from avoiding appearance of impropriety with corporations, you failed.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the panel, listed off a series of perceived offenses, from bringing prosecutions against the president’s foes to the mass firing of career prosecutors — including the attorney who admitted in court the Trump administration had mistakenly deported a man, others who worked on criminal cases of Trump, and the former pardon attorney who refused to sign off on recommending a pardon for actor Mel Gibson.
“In less than 18 months at the Department of Justice, you have shown you’re still President Trump’s personal attorney, your tenure can be summed up in the four words you said, “I love you, sir,’ to President Trump,’” Durbin said, noting that was how Blanche said he would respond if Trump ever decided to fire him.
“This nation deserves an attorney general who loves the Constitution more than any single president.”
Schiff similarly dug into Blanche’s record at the DOJ, asking, “What happened to the prosecutor people had respect for?”
“You asked me what happened to Todd Blanche. I am still here,” the nominee shot back. “I am the same exact person I was when I was a federal prosecutor in the SDNY, which is do the right thing and do everything you can to keep communities safe.”
Blanche was pressed repeatedly about his ties to Trump, at one point mistakenly referring to himself as his attorney — the role he had in private practice before joining the administration.
“I’m his lawyer — was his lawyer, and now I’m the deputy attorney general,” Blanche said.
“I met him as his criminal defense attorney,” he continued. “I’m not sure there’s very many people who have ever had a criminal defense attorney who calls that person their friend.”
Democrats were quick to slam the Trump official over this comment, with Schiff calling it a “Freudian slip.”
While Cornyn was noncommittal on Blanche, another exiting Republican who had sparked speculation over whether he would back the nominee seemed to warm to him.
Tillis, who has become one of the most outspoken Senate Republicans against many of Trump’s moves since announcing his retirement, spent part of his questioning accusing Democrats of hypocrisy and told Blanche he was doing “very well” in the hearing.
But the North Carolina Republican was also another voice hammering Blanche on the anti-weaponization fund.
“I want to stick a fork in this turkey of a 1776 fund,” Tillis said.
“And you’ve said that it’s moot. I’ve had colleagues here, attorney. I’m not an attorney. I’m a business consultant. I see a problem. I want to solve it. This is a problem. It should never be paid out. You’ve said it’s going to be moot. That it’s moot. Others – these smart attorneys that I’m surrounded by. – think that the courts are probably going to deal with it. “But why should we waste the court capacity on this issue?” he asked.
Blanche also faced tough questions from Democrats over his handling of the DOJ’s release of files related to its probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Durbin urged the acting attorney general in his opening statement and during questioning to meet with the 10 survivors of Epstein’s crimes who were present in the hearing room.
Several survivors have spoken out after the department failed to redact personal or identifying information about them when the DOJ released files as required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act earlier this year.
Blanche responded that he was “prohibited from meeting directly” with these survivors, and instead directed them to speak with the head of the DOJ’s task force investigating human trafficking.
“All he had to say was yes,” Durbin said at a press conference with other Justice Committee Democrats following the hearing.
“Just to sit down with these survivors and hear their story and hear their questions is not too much to ask the man who wants to be attorney general of the United States of America,” the ranking member said.
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