Attorney general nominee Todd Blanche opened his confirmation hearing by telling members of the Senate Judiciary Committee he is committed to “restoring American trust” in the the Justice Department — after claiming the Biden administration weaponized the law against President Donald Trump and many Republican lawmakers.
“In recent years, we watched the Justice Department turn against many of you and a former president and it damaged the public’s faith in justice,” Blanche, the current deputy attorney general now also leading the DOJ in an acting capacity, said Wednesday morning. “We are fixing that.”
He was likely referencing Biden-era special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and mismanagement of classified documents.
Blanche, who was confirmed last year as deputy attorney general, told the Senate he is “here today to earn your trust once more” amid indications that Judiciary Committee Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas could oppose him.
He also used his opening statement to play up the accomplishments his agency has taken to keep Americans safer, specifically noting actions to more stringently enforce the borders, keep drugs out of the country and crack down on fraud such as in the healthcare space.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, went after Blanche for an uneven rollout of the Jeffrey Epstein files and his role in facilitating the controversial legal settlement agreement for Trump that led to the short-lived launch of an “anti-weaponization fund” that members of both parties decried.
“This nation deserves an Attorney General who loves the Constitution more than he loves the President. An Attorney General who is focused on keeping Americans safe and combating corruption — not satisfying the grifter-in-chief’s personal grievances and filling his bank accounts,” Durbin said. “Mr. Blanche, you have proven beyond a reasonable doubt you are not that person.”
Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) lauded successful efforts under Blanche at DOJ to crack down on crime and defended him against Democratic attacks that the Justice Department has lacked transparency and accountability.
A staunch oversight advocate, Grassley called the current Justice Department “the most responsive” he has ever worked with during his decadeslong career — noting that DOJ, since January 2025, “produced approximately 43,000 pages of records in response to requests from the Senate and House,” which is “three times” the number of records the Biden DOJ produced over an equivalent timeline.
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