Blanche on ‘glide path’ for US attorney general confirmation, Republican insiders say
By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) – Todd Blanche will enter his confirmation hearing on Wednesday with baggage that may have eluded attorney general candidates.
They include a client list that includes the president who nominated him, a since-shelved $1.8 billion “anti-proliferation fund” that many Republicans called reckless, and a slew of demands urging senators to vote “no” after Democrats, former prosecutors and Jeffrey Epstein survivors said he failed to release the Epstein files.
Still, Republican insiders expect him to win confirmation easily. The outcome will determine who leads the Justice Department, which is pursuing cases of perceived opponents of President Donald Trump and faces questions about its independence from the White House.
“He’s moving quickly toward his confirmation,” said Mike Davis, former chief counsel for nominations for Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, who remains an influential outside voice in Trump’s orbit.
Davis, who helped Blanche prepare for the hearing, predicted that Blanche would be confirmed before the August recess.
THE CONFIDENCE OF THE REPUBLIC IS INCREASING
That confidence reflects a broader shift in Senate Republicans’ view of a nomination that looked shakier a few weeks ago, when the anti-gun fund launched one of the party’s few open revolts against the Trump administration. Those familiar with the process say Blanche’s promise to abandon the fund, combined with meetings with senators, has largely calmed the unrest.
On Monday, a federal judge in Miami ruled that the agreement that created the fund and shielded Trump and his family from IRS audits was never a real legal dispute between the two parties, effectively invalidating the agreement two days before Blanche’s high-stakes hearing.
Blanche, Trump’s former “personal attorney,” was confirmed to be appointed deputy attorney general in March 2025 to handle the department’s day-to-day operations; It’s a role allies play as Justice’s steady hand and critics see as protection for a Trump loyalist. He became acting attorney general this spring following the departure of Pam Bondi and has since echoed Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud while overseeing a department that pursued prosecutions of the president’s perceived rivals, including former FBI Director James Comey.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Blanche and his allies said he was correcting the mistakes of previous administrations and focusing on reducing violent crime.
Mike Fragoso, a former top Senate aide who served with former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary leaders, said Blanche’s position as acting attorney general makes her confirmation more likely.
“I think they probably understand that he’s got the job and he’s going to continue to do the job,” Fragoso said of Senate Republicans.
IMPORTANT SENATORS REMAIN UNDECISIONED
Blanche’s confirmation depends on maintaining the support of every Republican on the committee. They include Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas; Both are in their final months in office, and neither has publicly said which way they will vote.
After meeting with Blanche in late June, Tillis said on CNN that he had a “positive disposition” toward her as long as the fund was rendered “inoperable.” His office did not respond to a request for comment. Blanche told MPs the fund was dead, but the ministry refused to put it in writing and refused to relax the tax exemption provisions attached to it.
Cornyn said he had a positive meeting with Blanche, who promised to inform him about the tax exemption agreement at His office declined to say whether that briefing took place.
Advocates for Epstein survivors seized on this uncertainty and erected billboards in North Carolina and Texas accusing Blanche of betraying the victims; In New Orleans, he targeted Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy.
“Blanche betrayed Epstein survivors,” read a billboard in Charlotte, North Carolina. Another billboard in New Orleans read, “Blanche protects predators.”
Blanche defended the Justice Department’s stance on the release of the Epstein files, saying the identity of the victims was coincidental and promising to hold the perpetrators accountable if the evidence warranted it.
Fragoso said, based on conversations he’s had with people on Capitol Hill, that concerns about gun funding and Epstein are unlikely to derail the candidacy.
Davis agrees: “There was a blockade on the arms fund, and that’s the end of it. I’d be surprised if he lost any votes.”
It was not immediately clear how the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, an influential member of the Judiciary Committee who signaled support for Blanche after meeting with her, would affect Wednesday’s confirmation hearing.
CRITICISM FROM MANY FRONTS
Blanche faces criticism from many directions. Some far-right activists and Trump allies say Trump moved too slowly to dismiss charges or grant pardons for those accused in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Democrats argue that he is simply carrying out Trump’s wishes rather than acting independently. More than 1,200 former Justice Department officials from both parties signed a letter saying his tenure had already harmed the agency and the nation’s public safety.
Senate Democrats, led by Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse, filed a series of records requests and oversight letters challenging Blanche’s conduct as acting attorney general.
“Republican senators who voted to confirm Blanche are kidding themselves if they believe she will do anything other than accelerate the weaponization of the justice system,” Whitehouse wrote in an op-ed last month.
Democrats are expected to press Blanche aggressively at the hearing on her independence, judgment and funding.
“This administration has been very combative in the hearings,” Fragoso said. “I would be surprised if he was lying on the ground being attacked by Democrats.”
(Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
