Watch live as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing.
What to know:Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is confronting questions about his brief but turbulent tenure atop the Justice Department during a Senate confirmation hearing that will test President Donald Trump’s grip on Republican lawmakers whose support the nominee will need for the job. Blanche said in his opening statements that he and his team are “restoring trust” in the Justice Department, moving to address complaints from Democrats that he has weaponized the law enforcement institution by pursuing criminal investigations into Trump’s perceived adversaries.Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, has run the department on an interim basis since April, during which time he has accelerated investigations into Trump foes, functioned as the public face of a maligned fund meant to compensate the Republican president’s allies and alarmed press freedom advocates with an aggressive pursuit of news media leaks.
‘We are restoring trust’ in the Justice Department, Blanche says
Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, alluded in his opening statement to the criminal cases brought against Trump in the last administration.Blanche said that “in recent years, Americans watched the Justice Department turn against many of you and a former president, and it damaged the public’s faith in justice.” He added: “We are fixing that.”While the Trump administration has said it is determined to end the “weaponization” of law enforcement it said occurred under the Biden administration, critics argue it has instead turned the agency into a tool of retribution against Trump’s political opponents.The department under Trump has opened investigations or brought prosecutions against numerous foes of the president, including former FBI Director James Comey.
