Todd Blanche faces U.S. Senate in DOJ confirmation hearing

What This is

• Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general and Trump’s nominee for the permanent job, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the confirmation process.
• Senators pressed Blanche on whether he can be independent after representing Trump, including a hearing moment when he said “I’m his lawyer” and then corrected himself.
• Senators questioned Blanche about the Justice Department’s release of Jeffrey Epstein-related files, including problems with redactions that exposed survivors’ personal information.
• Blanche defended DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files as unusually transparent, admitted redaction mistakes, and said lawyers worked to correct them.
• Democrats and some Republicans focused on a proposed $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund tied to a settlement effort in Trump’s IRS tax-return leak lawsuit.
• Blanche said the fund is “dead,” but he also said the underlying settlement still exists as an enforceable document, which led some GOP senators to demand stronger assurances it cannot come back.

Why This Matters

• The attorney general shapes what federal prosecutors prioritize, from public corruption to civil rights cases.
• The hearing is a test of whether DOJ can keep distance from a president’s personal interests.
• How DOJ handles sensitive victim records affects trust, privacy, and whether victims cooperate in future cases.
• A court finding that a Trump-linked settlement was improper raises wider concerns about ethics and equal treatment under the law.
• With tight Senate margins, a few votes can decide who leads DOJ.