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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is headed for a second straight day of grilling in the Senate, and his path to confirmation still remains cluttered with two key Republicans keeping tight-lipped on whether they’ll support him.
Blanche’s first day was fraught with questions about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) handling of millions of documents related to the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, known as the Epstein Files, the now-defunct anti-weaponization fund and whether he would operate the DOJ as a tool of retribution for President Donald Trump.
Two Republicans on the committee hold the key to Blanche’s success, Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, and so far, neither has committed to voting for him.
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Cornyn, who has taken issue with the nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund and the underlying settlement reached by Trump and his family and the IRS, which Blanche acknowledged was still “enforceable” but was not moving forward, was noncommittal on how he would vote.
Cornyn, who has taken issue with the nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, created under Trump’s IRS settlement to compensate people who claimed they were victims of government “weaponization,” which Blanche acknowledged was still “enforceable” but not moving forward, was noncommittal on how he would vote.
“Well, I don’t know what other information’s gonna be coming in,” Cornyn said. “The hearing is not even halfway done. And so, you know, I don’t have to make a decision now, so I’m not.”
Blanche received heat throughout the hearing for being Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, and quickly corrected himself when asked by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., if he considered himself the president’s friend.
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“I’m his lawyer — was his lawyer, and now I’m the deputy attorney general,” Blanche said.
When asked about the slip-up, Cornyn said, “I think he’s trying to walk the line.”
“I think he’s trying to walk a very difficult line,” he said.
Tillis’ primary concern, similar to Cornyn’s, is the anti-weaponization fund and whether it is truly dead and gone.
He declined to say whether he would support Blanche, but noted that when asked if he was willing to work on legislation to put a permanent end to the fund, Blanche said, “Yes.”
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“I think that’s a pretty strong indication that he and the administration are OK with [it],” Tillis said. “Does anybody really believe that the nominee for attorney general would answer that question if he didn’t think that he had the support of the president to end this?”
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats on the panel are dug in against him.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the top-ranking Democrat on the committee, browbeat Blanche for his handling of the Epstein Files release and whether he would actually meet with Epstein survivors.
“Anyone who can represent a known pathological liar like Donald Trump can have no integrity,” Durbin said. “You can’t have integrity if you represent Donald Trump, because he is such an inveterate liar. And that person, of course, should never, never, never be attorney general.”
And Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., admitted that Blanche was, “qualified … as someone who has been a prosecutor.”
“But given his legal experience, he should have known better than to be willing to tolerate or support the weaponization of the department,” Coons said. “Using it as a tool not to follow the facts and the law, to pursue justice, but to carry out a retribution agenda by President Trump.”
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