[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 96 (Monday, June 8, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2656-S2657]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NOMINATION OF TODD BLANCHE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last week, President Trump announced that 
he intends to nominate his former personal attorney Todd Blanche to 
serve as the next Attorney General of the United States.
  When Blanche was under consideration to be Deputy Attorney General, 
the No. 2 position at the Justice Department, I reminded him of the 
importance of DOJ maintaining its independence from the President and 
the pull of politics.
  Regrettably, over the past year, he has disregarded that call and 
erased that line, placing loyalty to President Trump above all else and 
damaging the independence and credibility of the Department in ways 
that will have ramifications for decades.
  It appears that blind loyalty has paid off for Blanche, which is 
exactly how President Trump incentivizes his appointees to compromise 
their integrity.
  How did Blanche earn the nod? I will tell you.
  During his brief audition as Acting Attorney General, Blanche took 
the weaponization of the Department to new extremes.
  He presided over the creation of a $1.8 billion slush fund that would 
funnel money to allies of the President, including January 6 
insurrectionists who beat up cops, in a purported legal settlement 
between the President and the government he runs.
  It gets worse.
  As part of that settlement, the IRS is permanently barred from 
auditing past tax returns of President Trump, his family, and related 
companies.
  Let me state this another way: The President of the United States 
sued the government he runs in order to get cooperating Federal agents 
to give away taxpayer dollars to the President's political allies and 
permanently shield the President, his family, and his companies from 
accountability for any past tax crimes.
  And Blanche acted exactly how President Trump expected him to: He 
advanced Trump's personal interests at the expense of the American 
people.
  While deploying the Justice Department as a shield for the President 
and his cronies, Blanche has also used our top law enforcement agency 
as a sword against Trump's political opponents.
  He brought a paper-thin indictment against the Southern Poverty Law 
Center, a civil rights organization that has a long history of exposing 
violent White supremacist extremists who are allies of this White 
House.
  And he brought DOJ's second baseless, vindictive indictment against 
former FBI Director James Comey. This prosecution was personally 
ordered up by the President, who despises Comey for overseeing the 
investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
  Blanche's misconduct as Acting Attorney General is just the most 
recent link in a chain of controversies that has surrounded Blanche 
during his tenure at DOJ--controversies that demand transparency and 
answers.
  Last week, appearing before the House Oversight Committee, former 
Attorney General Pam Bondi told lawmakers, ``[Todd Blanche] was in 
charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files.''
  Setting aside Bondi's failures in leadership on this issue, Blanche's 
direct role in the Department's failure to follow the law and protect 
the victims and survivors of Epstein's abuse is disqualifying.
  These failures follow the inexplicable transfer of Ghislane Maxwell, 
Epstein's coconspirator, to a minimum-security prison after Blanche 
personally conducted an inappropriate and ineffectual 2-day interview 
with her.
  Such a move is unprecedented for someone convicted of the crimes she 
committed and rightly received bipartisan scrutiny.
  Survivors deserve an Attorney General who will ensure transparency 
and fairness in the justice system; instead, many of them were exposed 
while the network of people around their abusers remained redacted.
  When Blanche appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his 
confirmation hearing, my Democratic colleagues and I will press him for 
answers and urge him to comply fully with the Epstein Files 
Transparency Act.
  Consider Blanche's own words when, at an April press conference, he 
made clear that he was so devoted to President Trump that he would 
serve him in any capacity, even if he was not chosen to be the Attorney 
General nominee.
  He said that if he was not nominated, his message to the President 
would be ``[t]hank you very much, I love you sir.'' He added that ``I 
don't have any goals or aspirations beyond'' serving Donald Trump.
  That should tell the American people all they need to know about 
where Blanche's loyalty lies.
  That love manifests as slush funds, partisan prosecutions against 
those the President feels have slighted him, and redirecting DOJ 
resources from protecting the American people from grave threats to 
treating the American people as grave threats.
  Blanche has helped Trump achieve the goal that he couldn't in his 
first administration: fully warping the Department of Justice, the 
Nation's top law enforcement agency, into his personal law firm; 
corruption with doors wide open; political loyalty to the extreme; and 
a willingness to ignore the values of the Constitution.
  When the Senate considered the confirmation of Todd Blanche to be 
Deputy Attorney General a year ago, I voted no.
  The independence of DOJ has been decimated under Blanche's authority. 
I had no confidence in him before, and after everything we have seen, I 
doubt we can have confidence in him now.
  After his fingerprints were found all over this so-called ``Anti-
Weaponization'' fund, a few of my Republican colleagues signaled he may

[[Page S2657]]

face hurdles on the road to confirmation.
  Will any of them muster the courage to join Democrats in actually 
holding Blanche accountable and demanding answers regarding the host of 
concerns I have outlined today? Time will tell.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

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