What happened at the attorney general’s confirmation hearing? : NPR

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 15. During Blanche’s tenure as acting attorney general, the Justice Department came under scrutiny for pushing President Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-arms” fund and its handling of the Epstein files. Eric Lee/Getty Images .

switch captionEric Lee/Getty Images

Todd Blanche, President Trump’s pick for attorney general, has faced tough questions — from Democrats and some Republicans — about the problems that have dogged the Justice Department over the past 18 months.

Blanche, currently acting attorney general, won Senate confirmation early in Trump’s second term to serve as deputy attorney general. But after spending hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Blanche’s confirmation to the top job is not assured. He needs the support of all Republicans for the nomination to authorize the commission.

Although Blanche remained calm throughout the hearing, there were some difficult moments during the interrogation. Here are three points to remember:

The anti-arms fund is dead. Type of?

Earlier this year, a $1.776 billion anti-gun fund was created as part of a deal with Trump to end his lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns.

After a bipartisan backlash, Blanche proclaimed the fund dead and said no money would be released. But part of the regulation that protects Trump, his family and his businesses from IRS audits of past tax returns remains in effect.

A federal judge on Monday blasted the DOJ over the settlement and particularly the anti-arms fund, saying it was an attempt to use the court to legitimize an effort to “appropriate billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law.”

Blanche tried to brush it off, saying the issue was moot, but the fund remained a hot topic among senators Wednesday morning.

Asked about the role he played in brokering the deal between Trump and the IRS, Blanche maintained that he did not participate directly in the negotiations but engaged in conversations about settling the IRS lawsuit.

Sen. John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, whose concerns about the deal could undermine his support for Blanche, reviewed key provisions of the deal using an enlarged billboard.

Cornyn noted that, based on the language of the agreement, Trump “did not agree in writing” to officially terminate the fund, and that the settlement is still an agreement that is an enforceable contract — which Blanche confirmed.

Blanche said:[Trump’s attorneys] could try to enforce the contract. They can’t force the Justice Department to move forward with the arms fund. They could potentially say, I guess, that we violated [the contract] by not moving forward.”

But, he quickly added, he had not heard of any pressure to do so.

To “put a fork in this turkey” of a fund, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina suggested that Congress should consider codifying the end of the anti-arms fund into law.

That’s something the DOJ could support, Blanche said.

Tillis was a Republican who seemed hesitant to support Blanche before the hearing. But in concluding his questioning of the acting attorney general, Tillis told him: “You did an excellent job today. »

Blanche is accused of working for Trump, not for the people

Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy asked Blanche, “Are you friends with President Trump?”

Blanche replied, in what might have been a slip of the tongue: “I’m his lawyer – he was his lawyer.” And now I’m the deputy attorney general.

Before Blanche became acting attorney general or deputy attorney general, he was Trump’s personal attorney, representing the president in several criminal matters, including federal classified documents and election obstruction cases.

Blanche’s comments made an unintentional nod to an ongoing concern among Democrats that her personal relationship with Trump affects her ability to serve the American people.

The settlement of the IRS lawsuit has done little to allay these concerns. Attempts to bring charges against political enemies like former FBI Director James Comey have also not been effective.

“It casts a shadow over any idea of ​​independence,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., when questioning Blanche about her ethics.

Throughout the hearing, Blanche defended her background at the department. He said the DOJ has been successful in its efforts to combat violent crime, combat fraud, arrest drug cartels, child molesters and gang members.

On several occasions, Blanche has also worked to distance herself from Trump’s actions, including granting pardons to the January 6 rioters.

Blanche said he did not celebrate the pardons but that, by law, his department had to dismiss criminal charges against those people once the president issued the pardons.

The Epstein files continue to give Blanche and the DOJ heartburn

Criticism of the department’s handling of the Epstein case is an unrelenting shadow that follows Blanche and others in the administration.

A handful of victims of the convicted sex offender sat behind Blanche during the hearing.

The DOJ, in particular, came under heavy criticism for failing to release all of the Epstein-related documents, then for missing deadlines to release the documents, and finally, when it released the documents, for failing to properly redact a number of victims’ private information and photos. Separately, Democrats criticized the department and its Federal Bureau of Prisons for moving Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, into a prison camp and out of a maximum security prison.

The administration has been sharply harangued by members of both parties for its lack of transparency on this issue. It’s a claim Blanche strongly objected to during the hearing.

“The Biden administration has done nothing to be transparent about the Epstein affair,” Blanche said. “We have been extraordinarily transparent in not only producing the documents, but letting the unexpurgated versions be available to all members of this body.”

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the committee, countered that it took a bipartisan Congress to pass legislation to force the administration’s hand to release the documents.

Durbin pushed Blanche to agree to meet with 10 of Epstein’s victims within 30 days. Blanche hesitated, saying the women could meet with a staff member who worked on these cases; he argued that he could not meet with them because they were represented by a lawyer. (Senator Booker later called this assertion “completely absurd.”)

Blanche ultimately said the DOJ has always been open to meeting with victims. And he took responsibility for the “errors made” related to the failures to delete the files.

“Whenever we learned that a victim’s name had not been inappropriately redacted, we immediately removed the document and corrected it as soon as possible. This does not excuse the errors for which I take responsibility, but it does mean that we tried to correct them.”

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