During a confirmation hearing in Washington on July 15, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spent about five hours fielding questions from U.S. senators in his bid to become the nation’s 88th attorney general.
Here are five highlights from the hearing, which continues on July 16 before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
If Blanche receives the committee’s nod, the full Senate would need to schedule a vote to confirm his appointment. Republicans hold 53 seats; Democrats, 47.
Dems: Blanche Still Acting Like ‘Trump’s Lawyer’
During his opening statement, the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), alleged that Blanche has failed to detach himself enough from his former role as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.Blanche became deputy attorney general in March 2025. After Trump fired then-Attorney General Pam Bondi this April, Blanche became acting attorney general. Last month, Trump nominated him to step into the role permanently.
Durbin opined that Blanche has remained too closely wedded to the president.
“This nation deserves an attorney general who loves the Constitution more than any single president—an attorney general focused on keeping America safe and combating corruption, not satisfying the president’s personal grievances,” Durbin said.
Blanche said in his opening statement that he remains focused on furthering justice and safety across the nation.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) noted that presidents don’t appoint their enemies to serve as attorneys general, but instead “appoint their qualified friends.”
Kennedy asked Blanche about his relationship with the president.
“So I met him as his criminal defense attorney. I’m not sure there’s very many people who have ever had a criminal defense attorney who calls that person their friend,” Blanche said.
Crime Is Down, Prosecutions Are Up
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he wanted to “put aside partisan criticism for a moment and assess the evidence.”He rattled off the DOJ’s track record since Trump took office as the 47th president in January 2025.
The nation has logged its lowest homicide rate since 1900. Federal authorities have made more than 6,300 fentanyl arrests and seized “more than 428 million fatal doses” of the drug, Grassley said.
In addition, “the FBI has arrested 2,900 child predators and human traffickers—a 70 percent increase from 2024—and located more than 6,940 child victims,” he said.
“That doesn’t sound like failure to me,” Grassley said. “The list goes on. This department is keeping Americans safe, and the numbers back that up.”
Nominee Criticized Over Epstein Files
At the outset of the hearing, Durbin took issue with the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and the release of files related to the deceased sex offender.Although Bondi was head of the DOJ at the time of the release, Blanche took the lead on that initiative.
Durbin accused Blanche of being more concerned about protecting Trump’s reputation than about pursuing justice. He mentioned the DOJ accidentally leaked the names of some victims that were intended to remain private.
“Meanwhile, the names of powerful Epstein allies remained protected, in clear violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Durbin said.
Blanche countered that there was “nary a peep” about the Epstein case during the Biden administration. He also said the DOJ worked to quickly redact the names of victims when notified about the mistake.
“I will absolutely say that any mistake that we made should not have been made. And I very much apologize,” he told Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
Dems Question Anti-Weaponization Fund
Multiple senators at Wednesday’s hearing said the DOJ’s decision to settle a Trump lawsuit against the IRS and establish a fund to pay victims of government overreach showed Blanche’s priorities favored Trump.Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said that, despite any internal DOJ discussions about the settlement, the buck stopped with Blanche.
“Who rejected the 25 defenses the IRS had to this sham lawsuit,” Schiff asked Blanche. “You made the decision to not defend the IRS and the Justice Department.”
Schiff accused Blanche of having come to compromise his principles. Blanche said his principles have not changed since taking over the DOJ.
“My motivation and my goal was the same thing with the people who worked with me and worked for me, which is do the right thing, enforce the laws, and put bad guys in jail,” Blanche said.
GOP Urges Nominee to Act Against Abortion Pills
Grassley said the committee had received a lot of inquiries about a Louisiana court case challenging the “relaxed” Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation on mail-order abortion drugs.Blanche said “it would be wrong for me to talk about any litigation strategy beyond what’s in our briefs,” but the Trump DOJ is “not in any way defending” loosening abortion-pill restrictions, which happened during President Joe Biden’s administration.
—Janice Hisle; Stacy Robinson
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—Stacy Robinson
