Blanche to face grilling on DOJ controversies as he seeks confirmation as AG

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is set to be grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday over a series of controversies from his time with the Justice Department as he seeks confirmation to secure his role on a permanent basis. 

Formerly President Donald Trump's defense attorney, Blanche faced a relatively smooth glide path to confirmation with unanimous Republican support last year when he was nominated to serve as the department's number two official.

Since Trump's ouster of Pam Bondi as attorney general in April, Blanche has served in the position in an acting role and Trump formally nominated him in June.

Blanche's road to confirmation is further complicated by the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, a veteran of the Judiciary Committee who was expected to be a strong advocate for Blanche with his GOP colleagues. Blanche will likely need the support of every Republican on the committee in order for his nomination to advance to the Senate floor, as all Democrats are expected to oppose him.

  In recent months, multiple Republicans have voiced concerns with actions taken by the Justice Department under Blanche's leadership -- most notably the now-defunct "Anti-Weaponization Fund" that was propped up under the guise of a settlement after Trump's personal attorneys sued the Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns. One day after that settlement was announced, Blanche signed an additional document that purported to give Trump and his family immunity from IRS investigations of all of their past tax returns. 

The announced settlement drew bipartisan condemnation that led to an extraordinary behind-closed-doors standoff between Blanche and Senate Republicans who demanded the administration drop the proposed fund that could have been used to award Trump allies who claimed to have been wrongful targets of the Biden administration -- including those convicted of attacking police during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. 

While Blanche later said the administration was dropping the fund, the department has so far refused to commit to doing so in writing, and the DOJ has also not rescinded Blanche's separate order regarding immunity from IRS probes for Trump and his family. 

On Monday, a federal judge in Florida issued an extraordinary order that lambasted Trump and the Justice Department for misusing her court to legitimize a "settlement" that she says would never have survived judicial review.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, who had previously been assigned to oversee Trump's IRS lawsuit, referred Trump's attorneys for potential sanctions and separately sent her ruling to the State Bar of New York for consideration in potential disciplinary proceedings for Blanche -- who Williams said had potentially given "misleading" testimony to Congress about how the settlement was executed. 

The Justice Department has yet to respond publicly to Williams' order. 

Cornyn: Ruling raises more questions

Republican Sen. John Cornyn, a key vote on the Judiciary Committee who has said he remains undecided on Blanche's nomination, told reporters Monday that Williams' ruling raised more questions for Blanche to answer in his hearing. 

Sen. Thom Tillis, another closely watched Republican on the committee, said Tuesday that the fund needs to be "certainly and completely ended" before he can vote for Blanche to be sworn in as attorney general.

Both Cornyn and Tillis are serving out the end of their terms -- Cornyn was defeated in Texas' GOP primary by Trump-backed state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Tillis decided against running again after Trump threatened to put up a candidate to challenge him in North Carolina's Republican primary.

Blanche's handling of the "anti-weaponization fund" is just one among a series of controversies from his time atop the Justice Department that Democrats will seek to seize on to cast Blanche as an eager henchman to execute Trump's campaign of vengeance against his political enemies. 

"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," ranking Judiciary Committee Democrat Dick Durbin said in a statement following Blanche's nomination. 

Democrats are expected to highlight DOJ's now-dismissed cases that targeted former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James -- in addition to a new indictment targeting Comey in North Carolina over an image of seashells reading '8647' that prosecutors argue amounts to a death threat targeting Trump. Comey has pleaded not guilty to those charges and his attorneys are set to argue for the case to be dismissed on the grounds he's being vindictively targeted by the administration. 

Committee Democrats will also likely press Blanche over a series of other probes that judges across the country have labeled as politically driven, dismissing subpoenas that targeted Fulton County election workers, Minnesota state officials over their refusal to cooperate on immigration enforcement, and a criminal probe of former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that a judge said was based on zero evidence.

Questions about ICE tactics and more

Blanche will also likely face questions over the two fatal shootings by ICE agents over the past week and the administration's ongoing investigations into the separate shootings of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis earlier this year. 

In recent months the administration has also mounted a more aggressive push targeting reporters to root out their sources, with the New York Times last week disclosing that several of its journalists were subpoenaed to testify in federal court in Manhattan at the same time Blanche will be appearing before the Senate panel. 

Blanche also played a central role in the administration's botched handling of the release of files stemming from its investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and sat for a two-day interview with Epstein's convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in federal prison while he was assistant AG. Democrats have accused Blanche of later arranging for Maxwell's transfer to a less restrictive prison facility in Texas, which he has repeatedly denied. 

In the lead up to his hearing, Blanche has been seen making frequent jaunts to Capitol Hill meeting with senators to rally support for his confirmation. In recent weeks, he has held sessions preparing answers on some of the more controversial subjects he's likely to be pressed on -- including his loyalties to Trump, his position on monetary awards for Jan. 6 defendants and Trump's demands that the Justice Department aggressively investigate his 2020 election loss and potentially intervene in the upcoming midterms.

It's not immediately clear when the full Senate would move for a vote on Blanche's nomination if passed by the committee, though administration officials have said their goal would be for him to be confirmed before the August recess.