Blanche apologizes to Epstein accusers at AG confirmation hearing
Todd Blanche is facing what may be his toughest public grilling from Democrats at his Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. attorney general.
The former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump was quickly hit with accusations on July 15 that he's abusing his power by prosecuting the president's opponents, withholding millions of pages of Epstein files and attempting to clear Trump of any unpaid taxes.
"You take an oath to the Constitution, not to the President. But you have treated DOJ like President Trump's personal law firm," Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Blanche in an opening statement.
Since becoming acting attorney general in early April, Blanche has overseen a new Justice Department prosecution of Trump's former FBI chief, James Comey, and defended the Justice Department's attempt to create an "anti-weaponization fund" that could have paid those convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Amid bipartisan backlash, Blanche backed off, saying he wouldn't move forward with the fund.
Even if committee Democrats oppose Blanche's nomination, they won't be able to stop it without winning over some Republicans, which may prove difficult.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, voiced enthusiasm for Blanche as he opened the hearing, defending the DOJ's record under Blanche when it comes to capturing fugitives on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list and arresting people tied to the illegal fentanyl trade.
"For those who care to judge firmly and fairly, it's a record of success," Grassley said.
Booker says Blanche refused to meet Epstein accusers but met with Ghislaine Maxwell
Sen. Cory Booker, D–New Jersey, accused Todd Blanche of failing Epstein accusers, alleging there are more than 1,200 victims, but he noted that only two people have been prosecuted – Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein died while awaiting trial in a federal sex trafficking case. Maxwell was convicted of trafficking a minor to Epstein.
Booker's figure about the number of potential victims is close to what the DOJ itself has said. A July 2025 memo, released while Blanche was the department's deputy attorney general, pegged the number of victims at "over one thousand."
Earlier in the July 15 hearing, Blanche said he was "prohibited" from meeting with accusers who have lawyers. Booker said that statement was "not truthful," saying that as a lawyer, Blanche knows the lawyers could come, or accusers could waive their right to have their lawyers present.
"Your claim that you can't meet with these victims because they're represented by counsel is utter nonsense," Booker said.
By contrast, Booker said, Blanche was willing to meet with Maxwell, asking for details about what his July 2025 interview of her produced.
Blanche said it didn't lead to any additional people being charged, but he could not talk about whether it led to any further investigation.
Blanche apologizes to potential Epstein victims about privacy, defends DOJ
When the DOJ released millions of pages of Epstein files, many with major redactions, the effort was not flawless, Blanche said. Officials still released documents that included the names of potential survivors, and even some images of naked people. In the aftermath, the department provided an email address for the public to notify it about errors and give officials a chance to fix documents already posted on its website.
Asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D–Connecticut, for an apology to Epstein's potential victims, Blanche initially said he was sorry about any abuse they suffered. When pressed further for an apology for his department's mistakes, Blanche offered one – but still qualified it.
"I am sorry that in about 1% of the documents, mistakes were made," Blanche said.
"But what I will say on top of that is we put tons of resources to rectifying those mistakes immediately," he added.
No more Epstein files, Blanche says
Blanche said under oath that there were no more Epstein files to be released.
Blanche oversaw the release of nearly 3 million pages of Justice Department documents related to the charges of sex trafficking against Epstein. But another 3 million pages that were gathered in response to congressional legislation weren't related to his case, Blanche said.
"From what we collected, about 3 million that were just nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein or the case at all," Blanche said.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, asked why he didn't just release all the documents that were collected. But Blanche said releasing unrelated case files, such as files about a different Epstein who had nothing to do with the case, would be illegal.
"That would be against the law," Blanche said. "The only reason we could release the 3 million that we did was because of the Epstein Transparency Act. There are federal laws that prohibit the release of case files."
Blanche says $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund is ‘dead'
Blanche stuck to his testimony that Trump's proposed $1.8 billion fund – to pay people whom the Justice Department improperly investigated – is "dead," but that a judge cannot require him to file such a declaration in court.
Trump proposed the fund as part of a settlement to end a lawsuit against the IRS. He sought to reimburse people such as defendants in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, but dropped it as part of the settlement following widespread criticism.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia temporarily blocked the creation of the fund. She asked Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to submit declarations that the fund was dead before ending the case entirely, but they declined.
"The reason why neither myself nor Secretary Bessent agreed to put a declaration in is because of longstanding precedent that judges cannot ask Cabinet secretaries – people like me – to put in declarations," Blanche said. "It has nothing to do with whether the fund is alive."
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Florida wrote July 13 that she was "extremely troubled" by Blanche's May 19 testimony to Congress that there was no mechanism in place for a judge to review the settlement of Trump's tax case. Williams called the statement "at best, misleading and, at worst, disingenuous."
"The Court was available to review any pleading by any Party at any time during this lawsuit," Williams wrote.
Trump continues to support such a fund. But Blanche said that the fund is dead.
"I'm under oath today. I've said it's dead repeatedly," Blanche said. "I'll say it as many times as necessary."
Cornyn presses Blanche on Trump-IRS settlement
Sen. John Cornyn, R–Texas, who recently lost his Republican primary ahead of the upcoming November general election for his Senate seat, quickly showed in his questioning that he's open to scrutinizing Blanche.
Cornyn noted that Trump's purported settlement with the IRS, negotiated between Trump's personal lawyers and the DOJ, states that it can only be modified if the two sides in the lawsuit agree in writing.
Cornyn confirmed with Blanche that the two sides haven't made a written agreement to change the deal, even though Blanche has said the DOJ won't move forward with the "anti-weaponization" fund it promised Trump as part of the deal. A judge on July 13 also blocked the settlement from being used in legal proceedings, saying it was an improper effort to confer immunity on people and entities close to Trump.
"I suppose they could bring a lawsuit," Blanche said, referring to Trump, his two oldest sons and the Trump Organization, who sued the IRS together. "And then we would litigate it, but even if we were litigating it, there's no fund.
Blanche: Trump had ‘full power' to pardon Jan. 6 rioters
Durbin asked Blanche whether Trump's blanket pardon of about 1,600 people charged in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, was the right thing to do.
"I think someone should have grabbed him by the arm and said, ‘Stop, you can't release all of those rioters,'" Durbin said of people convicted of assaulting police or other "serious crimes."
Blanche said the Constitution gives Trump "the full power to pardon anyone for any reason he wants."
"I don't question President Trump's authority or his decision to do so," Blanche said.
Durbin calls Trump tax settlement ‘sweeping' but Blanche says it's done ‘regularly'
Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee, questioned how Blanche could agree to waive any prosecution of Trump as part of a settlement of a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
"It's pretty sweeping," Durbin said.
Trump was the first president to have his tax returns leaked from the IRS. He sued the government for $10 billion, putting him in the unique position on both sides of the case while overseeing the IRS as president.
The settlement said neither Trump, his older sons, nor his namesake company could be audited or prosecuted for potential tax violations.
"Involving the president of the United States, I'm not sure it's ever been done," Blanche said. "But this type of settlement is done regularly."
Blanche added that the agreement doesn't give Trump or his family any protection for future tax filings.
Who is Todd Blanche?
Before Trump returned to the Oval Office, Blanche worked as Trump's personal defense lawyer on several cases. He sat beside him during the criminal trial in which Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump initially tapped Blanche in November 2024 to be his deputy attorney general, the No. 2 position at the Justice Department. Blanche became acting attorney general after Trump, in April, fired Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Epstein files, blistering Bondi blowback, color Blanche nomination
Publicly, Trump kept his reasons for firing Bondi – potential indicators of what he hopes to see from Blanche – opaque. Trump posted on social media that Bondi was "transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector."
However, Trump was reportedly frustrated with Bondi's lack of success prosecuting his political opponents and critics, and with her handling of the DOJ's files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was once a friend of Trump's.
In March 2025, Bondi stoked expectations that the DOJ would be releasing incriminating information against associates of Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
Two months later, however, Bondi reportedly told Trump he was named multiple times in the files. The DOJ then released a memo in July saying a systematic internal review of the files failed to turn up any incriminating list of Epstein clients, and "no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted."
In the months that followed, Bondi faced blistering criticisms alleging that the DOJ was failing Epstein's victims and the public by not bringing greater transparency and justice to the case.
As those criticisms persisted, Blanche became the public face of the Trump administration's response to the Epstein files. He made a special trip to interview Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking a minor to Epstein. She was then transferred to a less restrictive federal women's prison.
After Congress passed a bipartisan law mandating that the DOJ release its Epstein files, with limited exceptions, Blanche handled the press conference on releasing millions of pages of Epstein documents in January. There were many redactions, and the Justice Department withheld millions of additional documents.
Blanche's busy to-do list as acting attorney general
Under Bondi, indictments against two Trump foes, Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, were dismissed. The indictment against Comey alleged he lied to Congress, while the case against James alleged she committed bank fraud.
Since becoming acting attorney general, Blanche's Justice Department secured a new indictment against Comey, charging him with threatening to harm or kill the president in May 2025, when he posted an image of seashells on Instagram in the shape of "86 47."
The term "86" is slang that means "to throw out" or "to get rid of," according to Merriam-Webster, and Trump is the 47th U.S. president. Some Trump supporters interpreted the post as a threat. Comey quickly deleted the post and said in a new one that he "didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence," and he took the post down because he opposes "violence of any kind."
Blanche's DOJ also secured an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with defrauding donors by using their money to pay informants within white supremacist groups. The civil rights organization denies it defrauded anyone. It has drawn the ire of many Republicans by labeling some conservative groups as hateful or extremist.
Blanche's DOJ also entered into a settlement with Trump, his two oldest sons and the Trump Organization that a federal judge rejected on July 13 as an improper attempt to legitimize conferring "immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President." The short-lived deal would have cleared Trump family members and the Trump Organization of any past tax liability and created the "anti-weaponization" fund in exchange for dropping their lawsuit.
The DOJ had described its deal as settling a lawsuit the Trump family filed on their own behalf after a federal contractor leaked tax return information from Trump family members and from hundreds of thousands of other taxpayers. But the judge said Trump was controlling both sides of the lawsuit – his own side and the government's – so it wasn't a legitimate legal dispute.
Since Trump returned to office, thousands of lawyers have left the DOJ, including several hundred who held leadership positions. Many former officials say that the exodus has hurt the DOJ's law enforcement efforts
Despite the departures, Blanche has overseen a coordinated effort by the Justice Department to boost its anti-fraud enforcement. In May, the DOJ announced criminal charges against 15 defendants in Minnesota for alleged fraud schemes that it said targeted more than $90 million in taxpayer dollars, including cases involving Medicaid and autism-related benefits.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blanche apologizes to Epstein accusers at AG confirmation hearing
Reporting by Aysha Bagchi and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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This story was originally published July 15, 2026 at 10:32 AM.