Blanche says he will ‘follow the law’ when pushed about federal agents at polling sites
When asked by Klobuchar whether he would ensure that federal agents are not deployed to polling sites during the November midterm elections, Blanche simply said that he would “commit to following the law”.
A reminder that the US constitution defers control of elections to each state. Donald Trump, however, has said publicly that he favors elections being “nationalized” – which has drawn widespread backlash.
“Do you understand why voters, US citizens, are concerned about armed agents at polling places?” Klobuchar asked.
“I’m not aware of armed agents being at polling places,” Blanche responded. “So I don’t. I’m not aware of that concern. But I will tell you, we will follow the law, senator.”
Key events
Richard Blumenthal then asks Todd Blanche if he would agree that agents of the United States should not fire their weapons into cars unless there is an imminent threat.
Blanche is told by the chair to give a short answer, and he does:
There’s a well-established standard as to when an agent can discharge their firearm and I think that that’s something that should be followed in every case.
Blumenthal presses him, saying that that includes not firing weapons into cars.
Asked if he would like to respond, Blanche adds:
There’s not really a response. It requires federal agents to follow the rules.
It comes as the White House this morning overturned a day-old DHS memo that said they would be halting traffic stops in the wake of recent stops that left two men killed in the space of a week, hours after Donald Trump insisted ICE keep making them.
The directive came after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on 7 July and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine on Monday. Both men were unarmed, neither was the intended target of the operation that killed him, and in both cases the agents involved wore no body camera to record what happened.
As my colleague Joseph Gedeon notes, five of the 11 people shot dead by federal immigration officers since Trump’s second term began were in their vehicles at the time, and the DHS’s standard justification – that occupants had “weaponized” their vehicles against agents – has repeatedly been undercut by witness video.
Blanche apologizes for mistakes made by DOJ ‘in about 1% of the documents’ related to Epstein
Richard Blumenthal then invites Todd Blanche to apologize to survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, some of whom are in the room, for how the DOJ mishandled the release of the files in its investigation and the mistakes that were made.
A reminder that at a House judiciary committee hearing in February, his predecessor Pam Bondi refused to directly apologize to survivors in the room for how her department handled the case.
Blanche at first goes down a similar path, giving a vague expression of regret that this happened to them.
My heart breaks for every victim of any sexual crime, whether it’s involving Mr Epstein or somebody else. And so if you’re asking me to apologize that this happened to them, of course, absolutely.
Pressed by Blumenthal on whether he would apologize to them for “the mishandling and the mistakes” by the justice department, Blanche adds:
I will absolutely say that any mistake that we made should not have been made … Any mistake that was made was not appropriate. And so, yes, I am sorry that in about 1% of the documents mistakes were made.
But what I will say on top of that is we put tons of resources to rectifying those mistakes immediately, including pulling down documents within minutes of being informed that there potential mistakes made.
After a 15-minute recess, the hearing has resumed. Todd Blanche has been refusing to answer questions from Democrat Richard Blumenthal regarding the clemency Donald Trump granted to private equity executive David Gentile, who had just begun a seven-year prison sentence for what prosecutors described as a $1.6bn fraud scheme, last year.
The founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPB Capital, Gentile had been convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in defrauding thousands of individual investors.
Blanche repeatedly declined to discuss whether he had any knowledge about or involvement in the commutation of Gentile’s sentence. He also refused to comment on “leaks” or the existence of investigations, when Blumenthal asked him about once such investigation into Gentile that was stopped. That is despite – as Blumenthal pointed out – Blanche commenting on several other investigations this morning.
In response to a question from Coons, the acting attorney general also confirmed that he does “not believe” that Trump would be able to run for another term as president.
A reminder that under the 22nd amendment of the US constitution, a president is only able to serve two non-consecutive terms in office.
Blanche repeats that Trump ‘anti-weaponization’ fund in ‘dead’
Throughout today’s confirmation hearing, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned whether the $1.8bn fund created to compensate the president’s allies has been definitively abandoned by the Trump administration.
Last month, Blanche insisted that the justice department would not moving forward with the fund while answering questions from the House oversight committee. Today, he sought to underscore his position as he fielded questions from senators on both sides of the aisle.
“I’m under oath today, and I’ve said it’s dead repeatedly,” Blanche in response to Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat.
Earlier, outgoing Republican John Cornyn, a senator from Texas who lost his primary bid this year, also grilled Blanche about the status of the fund.
“The settlement fund is just not moving forward,” Blanche told Cornyn. “No money went from the treasury to any other account.”
Blanche went on to clash with Whitehouse further, after the Democratic senator accused him of hiring Jared Wise, a rioter at the January 6 insurrection, to be a part of the justice department staff. Whitehouse also said that Blanche “bragged that bringing justice for violent rioters meant that every one of them was either pardoned or had their sentence commuted”.
The acting attorney general said that “almost everything” that Whitehouse said was “absolutely false”.
Blanche also insisted that he did “not hire the person referenced” and noted that while Trump has the “absolute right” to pardon anyone who he sees fit, including all of those who took part in the Capitiol riots, he has not celebrated that decision.
Blanche spars with Democratic senator over Kash Patel’s alleged behavior as FBI director
Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse probed Blanche over the alleged behavior of FBI director Kash Patel while on the job.
Patel has denied, under oath, recent allegations of excessive drinking and unexplained absences on the job, dismissing them as “baseless”.
The reports were first covered by the Atlantic mid-April, and the embattled FBI director sued the magazine – filing a defamation lawsuit against the magazine for publishing the claims and seeking $250m in damages.
During Blanche’s hearing, Whitehouse questioned whether the nominee for attorney general was happy with Patel’s performance. “Are you good with his airplane jaunts? Are you confident he’s not drinking on the job? Are you sure none of his travel is a pretext for vacation activities like snorkeling Olympics and visiting girlfriends? Are you sure he knows what he’s doing? Do you vouch for him? Are you willing to look at whether he lied to this committee?” the Democratic senator asked.
Blanche quickly snapped back: “That’s an extraordinarily obnoxious question, senator. And I have full faith in director Patel and the work that he’s doing every day.”
Blanche says he will ‘follow the law’ when pushed about federal agents at polling sites
When asked by Klobuchar whether he would ensure that federal agents are not deployed to polling sites during the November midterm elections, Blanche simply said that he would “commit to following the law”.
A reminder that the US constitution defers control of elections to each state. Donald Trump, however, has said publicly that he favors elections being “nationalized” – which has drawn widespread backlash.
“Do you understand why voters, US citizens, are concerned about armed agents at polling places?” Klobuchar asked.
“I’m not aware of armed agents being at polling places,” Blanche responded. “So I don’t. I’m not aware of that concern. But I will tell you, we will follow the law, senator.”
Blanche didn’t give a clear answer when asked by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, whether federal officials will work with local law enforcement in Texas and Maine, following the recent fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“I expect that these investigations should be run as every investigation of similar kinds, and so that necessarily includes working with state and locals in the appropriate way,” Blanche said.
This comes after the federal government refused to cooperate with Minnesota investigators from accessing the scene of Alex Pretti’s death in Minneapolis, despite having the requisite judicial warrant.
Anna Betts
Blanche defended the justice department’s handling of the Epstein files during his testimony on Wednesday, while also acknowledging that there were “mistakes that were made” when it came to some of the redactions, including redaction errors that exposed sensitive personal information about some Epstein survivors. Blanche said that the department corrected those errors as soon as they became aware of them.
“Whenever we learned that any victim’s name had been improperly not redacted, we immediately took the document down and fixed it as soon as we could,” he said. “That doesn’t excuse the mistakes, of which I take responsibility, but it does mean that we tried to fix them.”
Blanche maintained that the department complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“When it comes to the victims of this horrible man, we will never, never, not talk to victims” Blanche said. “We will never, not do everything we can to prosecute anybody that committed any crimes against any of these women. There are no closed investigations.”
During a heated exchange, Durbin later asked whether Blanche would commit to meeting personally with some of the Epstein survivors within the next 30 days.
Blanche responded that if the survivors are represented by attorneys, he is prohibited from “directly meeting with them” but, he said that members of his staff would meet with them.
“You’re dancing on the head of a pin here,” Durbin said. “If you’re truly committed to extraordinary transparency and you’re willing to meet with these victims, I hope you will do it immediately, or we’re going to hold you to it.”
