President Trump’s attorney general pick, Todd Blanche, is facing the congressional music today during the first day of his Senate confirmation hearing. There’s a lot of ground for the suddenly Lindsey Graham-less Senate Judiciary Committee to cover, from his views on Trump’s weaponization of the Justice system, to the so-called weaponization slush fund, to his role in the Epstein files debacle. Here’s the latest.
In his statement, the acting attorney general described his path to the Justice Department as the embodiment of the American Dream, recalling how he waited tables to make it through college and attended law school at night.
“From that start, I became a prosecutor and spent nine years prosecuting violent gangs and drug dealers. I rose through the ranks of the Department of Justice as a line prosecutor, then a division chief, then, as of last year, deputy attorney general, and now acting attorney general,” Blanche said. “But I did not take that path for a title. I took it to make a difference for American families and the towns they call home.”
As he closed, Durbin made it clear that he saw Blanche’s tenure at the Justice Department as a continuation of his work as Trump’s personal lawyer.
