Today, Todd Blanche sits before the Senate Judiciary Committee asking for the most powerful law enforcement job in the country. He should not get it.
Blanche is not a neutral pick. He is Donald Trump’s former personal criminal defense lawyer, elevated to Deputy Attorney General and then installed as Acting Attorney General after Trump fired Pam Bondi in April. Now, Trump wants him confirmed for good. Everything in Blanche’s record shows a man who serves one client, and it isn’t the American people.
Blanche’s Resume
He led the botched release of the Epstein files, and survivors paid the price.
As the DOJ official “in charge” of the Epstein files, in Bondi’s own words to Congress, Blanche oversaw a release so careless that victims’ private information was exposed to the public. These are survivors of one of the most horrific sexual abuse networks in modern history. His office’s incompetence retraumatized them. That alone should be disqualifying for the nation’s top law enforcement job.
He personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, then she got moved to a cushy prison camp.
Weeks after Blanche flew to Florida for a two-day interview with Maxwell, a convicted child sex trafficker, she was quietly transferred from a higher security facility to a minimum security camp in Texas, the kind of placement Bureau of Prisons policy normally bars for people convicted of sex offenses. Senators have been trying to get answers for nearly a year and have been stonewalled. Epstein survivors and their families have called the move exactly what it looks like: a reward for testimony that was convenient for Trump.
He fired the DOJ’s pardon attorney for refusing to be a rubber stamp.
Liz Oyer ran the Justice Department’s pardon office. Two days after Blanche was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General, he fired her, hours after she refused his staff’s demand that she recommend restoring gun rights to a celebrity friend of the president’s without the normal vetting. Oyer says she was marched out with no warning and that her family was later targeted. This is what happens to career officials at Blanche’s DOJ when they do their jobs instead of Trump’s bidding.
More than 1,200 former DOJ employees say don’t confirm him.
Justice Connection organized a letter signed by over 1,200 former Justice Department employees, spanning 14 administrations, warning that Blanche has presided over vindictive prosecutions, the erasure of accountability for January 6th, and a mass exodus of more than 16,000 department employees, including a quarter of its attorneys, under his watch.
More than 50 organizations dedicated to the rule of law oppose him too.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, joined by dozens of additional national organizations, sent its own letter to the Judiciary Committee warning that Blanche has turned the DOJ into “an instrument of Trump’s personal rage and revenge,” rather than an institution that protects the American people.
He brokered a nearly $2 billion payout for January 6th rioters and Trump allies.
Blanche was the architect of a roughly $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” designed to pay out to people who claimed to have been politically targeted, financed by American taxpayers. Senators in his own party called it “beyond the pale.”
He signed off on shielding Trump’s family from IRS scrutiny.
That same settlement effort included a provision that would have permanently banned the federal government from pursuing tax enforcement against Trump, his family, and their businesses. That is not equal justice under the law. That is a get out of jail free card written by the president’s own former lawyer.
On Monday, July 13, a federal judge in Florida dropped a scathing order in a case surrounding the IRS settlement, excoriating acting Blanche and directing that a copy be sent to the New York State Bar Association, where an ethics complaint against Blanche is already pending. The judge found that Blanche was a willing participant in a scam that President Donald Trump tried to pull in court.
He has gone after Trump’s perceived enemies, not actual crime.
Under Blanche, the DOJ has pursued prosecutions that judges themselves have called abusive. A federal judge threw out the case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father wrongfully deported to a Salvadoran mega prison, finding the record reflected “an abuse of prosecuting power.” Blanche’s department also pursued indictments against former FBI Director James Comey on similarly thin grounds. And Blanche has already shown his willingness to use the DOJ to intimidate reporters whose reporting upsets the president.
Every one of these threads points to the same conclusion. Todd Blanche has spent his time atop the Justice Department proving loyalty to Donald Trump, not to the Constitution or to the American public. The Attorney General is supposed to represent the interests of the people of the United States. Blanche has shown, over and over, that he represents one man.
Take Action Now
Blanche’s confirmation hearing is happening today and tomorrow, July 15th and 16th. He needs every Republican vote on the Judiciary Committee to advance. This is the moment senators most need to hear from constituents.
Call your senators. The Senate switchboard is (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to each of your senators’ offices, or look up their direct line at senate.gov. If you’re not sure who represents you in the Senate, click this link.
Sample call script:
“Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from [CITY, STATE]. I’m calling to urge Senator [NAME] to vote no on the confirmation of Todd Blanche for Attorney General. Blanche botched the release of the Epstein files, harming survivors of sexual abuse. He personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell before she was moved to a minimum security prison camp. He fired the DOJ’s pardon attorney for refusing to be a political rubber stamp. Over 1,200 former DOJ employees and more than 50 rule of law organizations oppose this nomination. Todd Blanche has proven he serves Donald Trump, not the American people, and he should not be confirmed as our next Attorney General. Thank you.”
Other ways to help:
Email your senators through their official senate.gov contact forms if you can’t get through by phone.
You can also contact member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, especially if one of your Senators sits on the committee. You can find the list of committee members here.
If you’re local to DC or a senator’s home state, ask about attending or watching the confirmation hearing and submitting public comment.
Talk to your friends and family. Most people have no idea this hearing is happening today. Change that.
Share this post and tag your senators on social media.
The Senate Judiciary Committee needs to hear, loudly and repeatedly, that the American people do not want an Attorney General who answers to Donald Trump instead of the Constitution.