Performing U.S. Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche testifies earlier than a Senate Judiciary Committee affirmation listening to on his nomination to be legal professional normal, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 15, 2026.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Todd Blanche defended the Division of Justice’s dealing with of recordsdata associated to late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday as he testified on the Senate Judiciary Committee about his nomination by President Donald Trump to turn out to be U.S. legal professional normal.
Blanche, who’s at present the appearing legal professional normal, additionally confronted criticism from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ailing., for holding cryptocurrency-related property final yr whereas “you issued an order dismantling DOJ’s crypto enforcement workforce and shutting down ongoing legal investigations within the crypto business.”
Blanche has but to reply to Durbin’s criticism of his crypto holdings on the listening to.
In response to a query by Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in regards to the Epstein recordsdata, Blanche mentioned, “We labored laborious, hardworking legal professionals inside the division, to do the correct factor, and we’ll proceed to take action.”
Blanche mentioned that when Trump signed a regulation final fall requiring the DOJ to make public the entire paperwork it held associated to Epstein, the division “undertook a Herculean activity to evaluate tens of millions and tens of millions of probably responsive recordsdata.
Blanche in January, as deputy legal professional normal, mentioned the DOJ wouldn’t publicly launch tens of millions extra pages about Epstein after initially disclosing greater than 3 million pages.
In his testimony on Wednesday, Blanche mentioned among the withheld recordsdata weren’t conscious of the calls for of the regulation as a result of, amongst different issues, they included info associated to a different case involving another person named Epstein.
The DOJ, in a Jan. 30 assertion in regards to the ultimate launch of the recordsdata, mentioned those who have been withheld fell into a number of classes, together with duplicate paperwork from totally different investigations and people withheld beneath sure authorized privileges.
A bunch of Epstein victims this week launched a video urging the Senate to dam Blanche as legal professional normal as a result of their private info was made public by the DOJ within the launch of recordsdata regardless that that info ought to have been redacted.
On Wednesday, Blanche mentioned, “The reviewers have been certified, skilled attorneys inside the division and the FBI. They took pains to use acceptable redactions. There have been errors that have been made, and so roughly 1% of the redactions needed to be fastened after we launched the Epstein recordsdata.”
“At any time when we discovered that any sufferer’s title had been improperly not redacted, we instantly took the doc down and glued it as quickly as we may,” Blanche mentioned. “That does not excuse the errors of which I take accountability, nevertheless it does imply that we tried to repair them.”
Blanche, who first drew nationwide consideration as a legal protection lawyer for Trump, has served as appearing legal professional normal since early April, when Trump fired Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi over her dealing with of points associated to Epstein.
Trump in a Reality Social publish on Tuesday praised Blanche, calling him a “nice lawyer, all the time very reasonable,” and writing, “each Republican Senator ought to vote to CONFIRM Todd Blanche, ASAP.”
Blanche additionally confronted questions on Wednesday about his resolution to create a $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund for the DOJ to compensate individuals who have been purportedly the victims of prosecutorial overreach by the Justice Division.
The fund, which Blanche mentioned he canceled within the face of sharp criticism from Republican senators and Democrats, was a part of an out-of-court settlement of a go well with filed by Trump in opposition to the IRS over the leak of his tax information. Whereas Blanche has mentioned the fund will not be created, Trump has floated the thought of reviving its creation.
That settlement included giving Trump, his members of the family and associated enterprise entities efficient immunity from audits, prosecution or regulatory enforcement motion by the IRS for tax returns filed as much as the date of the settlement in Could.
On Monday, a Miami federal choose in a scathing order mentioned Trump had sued the IRS for an “improper goal,” to acquire the looks of “judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable foundation in regulation or truth.” The choose ordered {that a} copy of her order be despatched to the New York State Bar Affiliation, of which Blanche is a member, and which is contemplating a pending ethics criticism in opposition to him.
Durbin’s opposition to Blanche nomination
Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois and rating member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, throughout a affirmation listening to in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 15, 2026.
Graeme Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Durbin, the highest Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, instructed reporters on Tuesday afternoon that he had a 30-minute assembly with Blanche earlier within the day that included a dialogue in regards to the DOJ fund.
Durbin mentioned Blanche instructed him: “‘What extra can I do? What extra can I say? I made a mistake. I do not wish to see the weaponization fund go ahead.'”
Durbin mentioned he then requested Blanche, “Why do not you set it in writing? Do one thing so it is a credible assertion by you?”
The senator recounted that Blanche mentioned he can be keen to work with Congress to codify that the fund cannot be created.
“It appeared like a really weak protection,” Durbin mentioned.
CNBC has requested remark from the DOJ about that account, and about Durbin’s description of how Blanche addressed the difficulty of cryptocurrency throughout their personal assembly.
Durbin has been a critic of Blanche taking the legal professional normal publish since he was nominated, saying he’s involved about cash being made by Trump administration officers.
“I mentioned to Todd Blanche, it simply boils right down to this: I do not assume if you wish to get wealthy you should be operating for public workplace,” Durbin mentioned Tuesday. “I can not perceive all the cash that is being made on this administration.”
Durbin mentioned Blanche “didn’t deal with any of these issues instantly,” however that he “addressed his personal state of affairs with cryptocurrency.”
Blanche mentioned he had consulted with the Workplace of Authorized Counsel and ethics officers about his holdings in cryptocurrency, based on a Durbin aide who was on the session with reporters.
“He had $160,000 roughly in cryptocurrency and he was instructed that he needed to divest it,” Durbin mentioned.
On this dialog with Blanche on Tuesday, Durbin instructed reporters, “I began off with the difficulty of corruption.”
“And in the course of the time period when he was going by means of this technique of turning it over to his youngsters and grandchildren, there have been selections made in regards to the regulation of cryptocurrency, which most individuals, and many of the issues I’ve learn, recommend that they have been lessening the federal government scrutiny of their exercise,” the senator mentioned.
“He is an proprietor of cryptocurrency. He is transferring it inside his household. He is making selections … concerned in selections on the Justice degree as to the scrutiny of this business,” Durbin mentioned.
“That sounds prefer it, on its face, to be a battle of curiosity.”
One other space of controversy Democrats are anticipated to concentrate on is the federal prosecutions of individuals Trump considers enemies — former FBI Director James Comey and New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James — by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Japanese District of Virginia, final fall. That workplace is overseen by the DOJ.
Each of these instances, whose allegations have been strongly denied by each defendants, have been dismissed by a choose in November after he dominated that the interim U.S. legal professional who lodged the case was invalidly appointed.
