Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, is testifying before the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday as he seeks to become the nation's top law enforcement officer. Blanche, a former personal attorney for Trump, has been one of the president's most loyal enforcers in government, overseeing a dramatic transformation of the Justice Department during his tenure as deputy attorney general and acting attorney general.
Blanche's Role in Trump's Justice Department
Few officials have been more instrumental in Trump's second-term crusade to reshape the federal government than Blanche. After Trump fired Pam Bondi as attorney general in April, Blanche stepped in as acting attorney general, where he intensified the president's retribution agenda. He oversaw the purging of career employees connected to Trump investigations and directed the department toward punishing political rivals and investigating debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
During his confirmation hearing, Blanche is likely to face pointed questions from Democrats over his actions, which include firing career prosecutors for their work on anti-abortion cases, indicting the Southern Poverty Law Center on what critics call specious charges, and filing criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey over a seashell display that read "86 47" – shorthand for "get rid of Trump".
Erosion of Prosecutor Credibility
Blanche has overseen a department where prosecutors and government lawyers have been reprimanded for misrepresentations before judges. The long-held "presumption of regularity" – the assumption that officials act ethically and honestly in court – has evaporated under his leadership. For Blanche, the nomination as attorney general represents the pinnacle of a decision he made less than five years ago to bet everything on Trump. A former federal prosecutor and registered Democrat until recently, Blanche left a partnership at the law firm Cadwalader in 2023 to represent Trump in criminal cases. His loyalty was rewarded with a top post at the Justice Department.
Controversial Decisions Under Scrutiny
Senators are expected to press Blanche on the department's decision to vacate some of the most serious convictions from January 6, as well as an arrangement reached with the president to end a $10bn lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns. The agreement, approved by Blanche, called for a $1.8bn slush fund to compensate victims of alleged government weaponization and granted the president, his family, and related business entities unprecedented immunity from tax audits. Facing bipartisan backlash, Blanche later scrapped the fund. A federal judge on Monday excoriated Blanche and the president's lawyers, calling the original lawsuit collusive and designed to engineer Trump's preferred outcome.
Epstein Files Handling
Senators are also expected to robustly question Blanche on his handling of the release of millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. Beginning last year, the department released a trove of documents, but many contained sloppy redactions that publicly identified Epstein victims while keeping private the names of other figures. In May, Bondi admitted to redaction errors but said Blanche was "in charge" of the release. Before Blanche's hearing, several Epstein survivors released a video and put up billboards urging senators not to confirm him.
Annie Farmer, a survivor of Epstein's abuse, told the Guardian last month that Blanche "should not become attorney general." She said, "Pam Bondi was very clear that Todd Blanche was the person leading up the effort around the release of the files, and he has not taken accountability for the mistakes that were made, he has been clear that he doesn't plan to do any investigating around the leads that are included in the files, and he has, I'd say, not been honest about his efforts to involve survivors in the process."
Maxwell Meeting and Transfer
Blanche made headlines last year when he met with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime companion serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, in prison to interview her about the case. Shortly after, Maxwell was transferred from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas. The move sparked backlash, with experts calling it "unprecedented" and Democratic lawmakers noting that convicted sex offenders are rarely placed in minimum-security facilities. Blanche defended the transfer as necessary for Maxwell's safety. No other Epstein associates have been charged. In May, Blanche committed to not recommending a pardon for Maxwell.
Opposition from Former Justice Department Employees
More than 1,200 former Justice Department employees signed a letter opposing Blanche's confirmation. Stacey Young, a former Justice Department attorney and executive director of Justice Connection, which organized the letter, said: "Since his confirmation as deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche has shown time and again that his guiding star is fealty to the president, not the constitution. That fealty led to the purge of thousands of experienced career employees, a loss that will have a generational impact on the Justice Department's ability to carry out its mission and maintain credibility with the courts and the American people."
