▶ 0:16:48Chair Grassley: Good morning, everybody. Before we do the day's business , I would like to have a point of personal privilege. I want to recognize a very important member of my team, ryan giles. I want to thank him for his service to the committee. Ryan served as my chief nominations consult during this congress.
▶ 0:17:20Chair Grassley: Earlier this year he took on the role of chief counsel for crime and national security. Previously ryan served as chief nomination consult the senator graham in the previous congress. And he served as general counsel to the senate republican policy committee and the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee. He is also a military and law enforcement veteran.
▶ 0:17:51Chair Grassley: Ryan is very mission-oriented, team-player, has always gone above and beyond. He has done great things the right way and is highly respected on both sides of the aisle as a result. His hard work helped facilitate the historic pace of judicial confirmations this congress, during which the senate has been processing and confirming article three judges faster than
▶ 0:18:21Chair Grassley: Any time since the reagan administration. Ryan is now promoted to serving as chief consult for senator thune as majority leader. I wish ryan the very best in that endeavor, and I thank you, ryan, for joining our team and being here with us.
▶ 0:18:43Chair Grassley: [applause] we will vote on todd blanche to serve as attorney general of the united states, the only thing on the agenda today. Before we begin I would like to acknowledge Mr. blanche's nomination as having gone significant public interest.
▶ 0:19:12Chair Grassley: I started today's markup very early, because I'd like to afford any of my colleagues as much time as they need to make statements that they have. That said, we need to hold this vote today, because with limited floor time remaining before the august recess I would encourage my colleagues to remain present.
▶ 0:19:39Chair Grassley: But we are also accommodating scheduling conflicts, including votes and other committees. So I want everyone to be aware that, after we've had adequate opportunity for debate, we are going to move to the vote. As I said in the past, I'm happy to stay afterwards if any of my colleagues feel like they want more time to make their remarks.
▶ 0:20:05Chair Grassley: Additionally, I want to thank senator cornyn and senator tillis -- tillis isn't here yet, but you can tell him I am thanking him -- for their work, very hard work, related to today's nomination. Their concerns about the anti-weaponization fund and the irs settlement were shared by many, including this senator.
▶ 0:20:35Chair Grassley: I'm grateful that they, as well as Mr. blanche and the white house, worked in good faith to solve them. Formally resending the fund and clarifying the scope of release of claims has put this issue to bed once and for all. I was probably a little late a week ago last night getting involved in this issue.
▶ 0:21:03Chair Grassley: And when I got involved in it, I thought to myself, "it's just common sense" what tillis and corn and are asking out of the executive branch of government that I don't think I should've taken as long as it did to get it resolved.
▶ 0:21:21Chair Grassley: Can I don't have any way of knowing everybody that was involved in it, but it's just a crime that it took so long to work out with such a common sense thing that's pretty simple. When you have a settlement it is involved in the settlement at that time meant anything in the future that might be gone wrong or whether somebody had done something illegally or somebody wasn't paying their taxes, and that it wouldn't apply to anything in the future.
▶ 0:21:53Chair Grassley: To me that's very common sense and that's all I see at least for one half of what tillis and corn and -- and cornyn was trying to accomplish and it should have been easy and it seemed like it took the longest time to get accomplished. Turning to today's agenda I would like to say a few words about Mr. blanche.
▶ 0:22:20Chair Grassley: But the justice department has thrived under his leadership. Among other things, Mr. blanche has led to success in thwarting federal program fraud, restoring the safety of every american. I would like to take a few moments to reflect on that last one. To the safety of americans. The primary job of the attorney general and the justice department. At the end of the hearing Mr.
▶ 0:22:51Chair Grassley: Blanche stated that his job was "securing safety for every american." he is absolutely right. It's clear that from his track record that Mr. blanche has succeeded.
▶ 0:23:08Chair Grassley: We've seen report after report showcasing the department's increased in violent -- increase in violent crime arrests, disruption of terrorist activities, the seizure of illegal firearms and controlled substances. The council on criminal justice recently issued 2026 midyear report on crime trends. The results are very astounding.
▶ 0:23:41Chair Grassley: The report rates for homicide drop 51% from its peak over nine years ago. Carjackings down 73%. Residential burglaries down 56%. More vehicle thefts down 51%.
▶ 0:24:02Chair Grassley: Now critics might say, "well, there was a spike of crime in 2020." let's look at the reported crime rates in 2020 to 2019. -- in 2026 to 2019 pick sexual assaults down 13%. The thoughts with firearms down 17%. Robbery down 41 percent. Drug offenses down 15%.
▶ 0:24:33Chair Grassley: That's just a few of the statistics I can give you. Without objection I want to enter this report into the record. Is there any objection? I hear none. The washington times noted, "homicides on a track to hit the lowest point in recorded U.S.
▶ 0:24:53Chair Grassley: History amid an overall decline in crime nationwide." based on these stats it's evident that no justice department in our nation history can boast the successes of this justice department under Mr. blanche's leadership. Still, the critics can't bring themselves to acknowledge this reality.
▶ 0:25:22Chair Grassley: The washington times stated, "the encouraging news was met with little explanation as to why crime, especially homicides, has cratered after spiking from 2020 to 2022." that is a strange thing for them to say. The press has no explanation for what change from then to now. Because I can think of an explanation.
▶ 0:25:50Chair Grassley: I think every american in this country who feels safer in their homes, towns, and cities can think of an explanation. It's very obvious. Todd blanche's justice department has re-prioritized to the safety of americans after the biden administration open borders to violent criminals and then turned a blind eye to heinous crimes that were happening around the country.
▶ 0:26:20Chair Grassley: The biden administration was too busy weaponizing the justice department against political opponents to stop real crime, and so please don't forget, whistleblowers and media outlets reported the biden fbi even reassigned personals from investigating child sex crimes to work on january 6 cases.
▶ 0:26:48Chair Grassley: It's no surprise that when the trump administration secure the borders and Mr. blanche did his job prioritizing safety of americans, crime has come down. But despite clear evidence that america is a werner Mr. blanche's leadership, some alleged that he -- that america is safer under Mr.
▶ 0:27:11Chair Grassley: Blanche's leadership, some -- this committee received a letter from more than 300 angel families, who strongly support Mr. blanche. They praised his commitment to " core public safety priorities, stopping illegal immigration.
▶ 0:27:38Chair Grassley: , eliminating cartels and transnational criminal organizations, ending trafficking and dangerous drugs, protecting american communities of violent crime." as we heard from one of these angel moms at the hearing her testimony was heart wrenching as she told about her daughter's tragic, gruesome death.
▶ 0:28:08Chair Grassley: She stated, "from the time I've spent talking to todd blanche I knew immediately that he makes victims a priority. Under his direction, the doj has engaged directly with angel families and treated us not like political props but as partners in preventing future tragedies,
▶ 0:28:38Chair Grassley: And that's all we've ever asked for." she concluded by stating, "I 100% believe that todd blanche will be one who can deliver justice, saving lives of people who will never know it." she knows america is safer with Mr. blanche at the helm.
▶ 0:29:05Chair Grassley: The angel families know it and americans across the country know it. Today, I'm not only voting to advance todd blanche's nomination, I'm voting for the safety of the american people. Senator durbin.
▶ 0:29:19Sen. Durbin: Thanks, Mr. chairman. Reflect on the fact that as we meet today there are thousands, literally tens of thousands of men and women in the united states got up this morning and put on a badge or picked up their briefcase and went to work to make sure that we would be safe. They are in law enforcement all across the united states of america. They count on the system of justice as we all do to give us not only safety in our homes, but also fairness when it comes to treatment by the government.
▶ 0:29:50Sen. Durbin: The man we are discussing this morning seeks to be the number one law enforcement enforcer of the united states of america. The attorney general of the united states. The highest ranking law enforcement position. And what have we learned in the last few weeks when it comes to todd blanche? We have learned that simply his word is not enough for most of us. Not even for some of my republican friends. Even his word under oath is not credible enough.
▶ 0:30:20Sen. Durbin: We have a demand by colleagues that I support -- when it comes to important promises to the american people that he put it in writing. He did. Made it clear that todd blanche has no business serving as our nation's chief law enforcement officer. Two republican members of this committee said that they would not vote for Mr.
▶ 0:30:47Sen. Durbin: Blanche unless the j6, cop-beater slush fund was permanently deleted. Said to Mr. blanche, you will have to put it in writing if you're going to say those words. President trump responded, as we might have guessed. , as he always does by doubling down on his position then personally attacking our colleagues. To state the obvious, Mr.
▶ 0:31:17Sen. Durbin: Blanche's statement on the slush fund and the irs immunity agreement are not signed by the parties to the settlement agreement and are therefore unenforceable. The parties could still sue to enforce the agreement and the cop-beater's fund could be revived with a new order from the department of justice 15 minutes after Mr. blanche is confirmed as attorney general. Indeed, the president himself has largely telegraphed that is his plan.
▶ 0:31:45Sen. Durbin: This is the exact issue that the two senators identified as a basis for their objection to his nomination. Plant's nomination. To my republican colleagues, you gave Mr. blanche the benefit of the doubt when you supported his nomination to be deputy attorney general. 17 months later, there's no doubt where his loyalty will live. Look at this promise, unprecedented I believe in the history of the united states, that somehow Mr.
▶ 0:32:12Sen. Durbin: Blanche engineered an agreement, an understanding, a settlement, you name it, that said donald trump will never be held responsible for any violations of tax crimes before the date of this document that was signed. Saying the president can commit any crime in tax code and not be held personally responsible? Does that sound like he's being held to an accountability that we all expect of every single american?
▶ 0:32:42Sen. Durbin: Instead of serving the american people and upholding the rule of law and the constitution, Mr. blanche has aided and abetted the most corrupt administration in the history of the united states. Prior to this hearing Mr. blanche told me that he "made a mistake" by creating the january 6 slush fund. Where did he say it? In my office. With witnesses, my staff, to what I'm about to say. When I asked him about this under oath, Mr.
▶ 0:33:10Sen. Durbin: Blanche falsely claimed that he never made this statement. That's not true. Mr. blanche's willingness to casually lie under oath about a statement he made in a room full of witnesses shows the links he will go to to avoid offending president trump -- the lengths he will go to to avoid offending president trump. We all make a mistake from time to time.
▶ 0:33:36Sen. Durbin: No, no, mainly maga leaders do not admit to mistakes or say the word sorry. He personally signed the agreement releasing president trump, his family, and businesses from tax liability.
▶ 0:33:57Sen. Durbin: When asked how doj justified the slush fund's outrageous 1.776 billion dollar price tag Mr. blanche refused to answer. He shows commitment -- contempt for this committee and history by refusing to admit the sum was chosen to signal support for the january 6 rioters and many of us remember when they attacked and invaded the capital.
▶ 0:34:24Sen. Durbin: Those rioters shamelessly invoked 1776 to compare themselves to american revolutionaries. Give me a break. Mr. blanche told me the ruling against the settlement was "a hit piece" personally directed at him. This is no surprise coming from the man who declared that the justice department is "at war" with the courts. These are not the words of someone who would serve our nation as a top law enforcement official. One of Mr.
▶ 0:34:53Sen. Durbin: Blanche's first acts as deputy attorney general was to issue a memo gutting doj's crypto crime enforcement, which allowed the president to rake in $1.4 billion in a crypto wonderful last year. Even as americans reported billions of dollars in cryptocurrency fraud losses. The president did just fine, thank you. Meanwhile, Mr.
▶ 0:35:19Sen. Durbin: Blanche still drew his children and grandchildren 150 thousand dollars in crypto assets. Last year under Mr. blanche's leadership more than 1000 fbi personnel were pulled off key law enforcement priorities. What was a higher priority than the oath that they have taken to uphold the law? They were directed to flag epstein records and look for any mention of donald trump.
▶ 0:35:46Sen. Durbin: He refused to tell me who gave the order, but former attorney general bondi made it clear saying blanche was in charge of the epstein files. When the epstein files transparency act forced the doj to release the files, not only did the department delay producing it, it recklessly failed to redact hundreds of survivors' personal information, victimizing them all over again. They testified before this committee under oath to that fact.
▶ 0:36:18Sen. Durbin: Meanwhile, the names of powerful epstein cronies remain protected, in clear violation of the law.scrutiny of the epstein cover-up intensified. Mr. blanche participated in secret meetings in the white house situation room, of all places, to strategize about protecting trump, not epstein survivors. Mr. blanche volunteered to interview a convicted sex trafficker ghislaine maxwell, a transparent attempt to exonerate president trump.
▶ 0:36:47Sen. Durbin: Days later she was transferred to a minimum security camp, which is unheard of, unprecedented, for serious sex offenders like her. Mr. blanche agreed to meet with epstein survivors after months of pleas only after his nomination was in jeopardy and a member of this committee said he wouldn't consider voting with -- voting for him unless he met with the survivors. He then met with them for almost an hour.
▶ 0:37:15Sen. Durbin: One survivor who testified before this committee said, the meeting was a box-checking exercise. Mr. blanche refused to take accountability for redaction failures and wouldn't commit to following their suggested investigative leads. It's clear that Mr. blanche hopes to sweep the epstein scandal under the rug. I think those survivors for the courage they showed in this room, today and around the country, for continuing to advocate for survivors and to speak truth to power.
▶ 0:37:45Sen. Durbin: Mr. blanche has played a key role in terminating thousands of department of justice officials. The chairman talked about his law-enforcement record. Let's looking at it. The goal is clear. Replace these doj officials with unqualified maga loyalists who will rubberstamp president trump's corruption. Under Mr. blanche's leadership more than 16,000 employees have left the department.
▶ 0:38:13Sen. Durbin: 16,000 employees have left the department of justice, including more than one fourth of its attorneys. Many have been fired for declining to initiate vindictive prosecutions, for refusing to follow unethical orders, like a career immigration lawyer who refused an order to lie in federal court. Mr.
▶ 0:38:37Sen. Durbin: Branch bragged about fire and career law enforcement official simply because they were resigned to investigate president trump's misconduct. He is responsible for the department losing thousands of expertise, making all of us less safe. Consider this quote.
▶ 0:38:56Sen. Durbin: On blanche's watch the trump doj has pursued an unabashedly vindictive agenda of leveraging the government's also prosecutorial powers and public trust against the president's political enemies. These are not my words. This is the conclusion of the national review, the leading conservative publication founded by william buckley. This is an about democrats versus republicans.
▶ 0:39:24Sen. Durbin: This is about rule of law versus lawlessness. The attorney general is supposed to be the people's lawyer. The department of justice should work on behalf of all the american people. Mr. blanche continues to operate as the president's personal lawyer, treating the justice department like a law firm serving one client, the president. The president has made it clear that he plans to keep Mr.
▶ 0:39:49Sen. Durbin: Blanche in place as acting attorney general, a damming comment on his capacity to honor elite -- honorably serve in this role. We don't need to provide our consent.
▶ 0:40:02Chair Grassley: Before I: democrats, I would like -- before I call on democrats I would like to have cornyn and tillis to have a few minutes. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. The office of attorney general is one of the most challenging jobs in the cabinet.
▶ 0:40:27Chair Grassley: You are the same time the people's lawyer as senator durbin has said while you are a number of the president's cabinet, subject to being dismissed at the pleasure of the president. It is a very challenging balance to strike, to be sure.
▶ 0:40:46Chair Grassley: The tax lawsuit that was filed by president trump and his son and the trump organization in january of 2026 was what prosecutors called unparalleled in the irs' history. A contractor with bose hamilton got the job at the irs for the express purpose of leaking private tax returns of people he thought the public needed to know about.
▶ 0:41:17Chair Grassley: That is a violation of the criminal law. And the contractor is currently serving a five-year term in the federal penitentiary for that. Initially, when the president filed suit he sought $10 billion in damages. That is nowhere to be found in the final settlement. The settlement documents also created an abruptly $1.8 billion weaponization fund.
▶ 0:41:47Chair Grassley: That is no longer part of the settlement. I've been very clear, as others have, that in order to support Mr. blanche's nomination I needed specific assurances in writing about a release signed by the acting attorney general last may.
▶ 0:42:08Chair Grassley: I asked for written assurances that clarifies the scope of the parties to the irs and audit agreement and permanently ends the weaponization fund. While this may sound like nitpicking to some, it's critically important not only to me but to other members of the senate. Quit Mr. blanche said under oath in his nomination -- what Mr. blanche said under oath in his nomination hearings is important.
▶ 0:42:36Chair Grassley: He said under oath subject to the penalties of perjury that he signed -- that the release he signed only applies to the irs, the treasury, and only the parties who were defendants and the plaintiff's. And he also said once more that the weaponization fund was dead. This past sunday senator tillis and I came to an agreement after numerous meetings with the department of justice and Mr.
▶ 0:43:02Chair Grassley: Blanche on an agency interpretive guidance document that reaffirms what Mr. blanche said in his sworn testimony in front of the committee. This document will help limit the substance and scope of the audit protection to the defendants in the lawsuit, the irs, and the treasury, and it limits it to the parties of the audit settlement, it limits the parties to the audit settlement to the plaintiffs, the people
▶ 0:43:32Chair Grassley: Who brought the lawsuit, and no one else. Importantly, it was retroactive -- stated to be retroactive. Not perspective, it doesn't apply to future audits, but it does claim all that should settle all claims that were subject to the lawsuit and those that could have been brought in that lawsuit. Again, importantly, it ends the weaponization fund.
▶ 0:43:57Chair Grassley: The doj has repeatedly said that this is their legal position, an interpretation, including filings in the department of justice in the eastern district of virginia, citizens responsibility and ethics, and washington versus trump in the district of columbia. They have been consistent about their assertion on behalf of the united states of america that the weaponization fund is dead.
▶ 0:44:25Chair Grassley: Of course, I expect them to live up to that in any future litigation. This Mr. blanche, -- given this agreement with Mr. blanche I expect this department to live up to this in future litigation and I will vote to advance him out of the committee today, but my voted to advance Mr. blanche's nomination goes beyond this document. We need a stabilizing force at the department of justice. And Mr.
▶ 0:44:54Chair Grassley: Blanche deserves the opportunity to provide that as opposed to continuing to serve in an acting capacity and as the deputy attorney general. The department of justice does not need a temporary, unconfirmed nominee as our nation's top law enforcement officer. President trump someone in this role with a strong legal mind, but who also is close enough to him to give him confidential legal advice, to tell him hard truths.
▶ 0:45:25Chair Grassley: I thought would Mr. blanche said during his hearing was very important. He said, "I can give the president confidential legal advice, but of course, he doesn't have to follow it. He was elected president of the united states and not me." that's the fact. I would advise Mr. blanche not to be afraid to capitalize on the earned trust when necessary for the good of the country.
▶ 0:45:50Chair Grassley: I want to thank him for being willing to work with us, senator tillis and me, and I want to commend my staff led by francis rooney and others for their hard work on these negotiations. I'm glad we could address these issues here in committees so that this nomination could move forward. I'm grateful to the chairman for giving me and senator tillis the latitude.
▶ 0:46:11Chair Grassley: Senator tillis
▶ 0:46:14Purex Sen. Tillis: Thank you, chairman. Thank you, senator cornyn. I'm by no means going to match up against senator cornyn, a lawyer and former judge come except to say that I believe we have addressed the concerns. We have the first one which I have called the payout pod for punks. I never liked in the 1770 six fund. It made no sense to me and I thought it was an insult to the police officers and those who defended us on january 6. It is done.
▶ 0:46:42Purex Sen. Tillis: It has been rescinded and I'm satisfied. I also felt like senator cornyn addressed the other piece of it that has to do with the audit to my satisfaction. The thing that interests me and I'm kind of curious about the speeches that come after here, is how everyone has this view of they are as pure as the driven snow and it is the other side that has a problem. I think we both have a problem, folks.
▶ 0:47:08Purex Sen. Tillis: If you want to talk about weaponization, take a look at the biden administration. Take a look at the obama administration. Take a look at crossfire hurricane. Take a look at the codes that lois lerner used in the irs to target businesses to try to un bank them. Look at the pardons out the door the president biden did for family members, staff members in congress. At the bottom line is, nobody is clean here.
▶ 0:47:38Purex Sen. Tillis: Until we start recognizing this behavior as bad, we are just going to one up it. Maybe it is more intense in this administration than the last one, and that when a little more intense than the prior administration, and so on and so forth, but folks, we have to end this stuff, we do. I will support Mr. blanche's nomination, but what I hope I see out of him is the bending of the curve of this uncertainty. The 8647, some bonehead in north carolina thinks that is a crime.
▶ 0:48:10Purex Sen. Tillis: They better have information to back it up. If all it is is a picture that person should lose his or her job. Similarly, the people who went after republicans in the biden administration should probably be disbarred or disciplined. So at the end of the day, don't act like you are standing on some sort of moral high ground if you start attacking this administration. Because I can match you almost deed for deed.
▶ 0:48:34Purex Sen. Tillis: What I would like to say here is maybe people say -- instead of -- instead of criticizing people on the other side of the break I'll, why don't you go back and hold your own caucus, your conference to a higher standard. That's what I'm doing. That's what senator cornyn' are doing. That's what I think the american people want more of. Mr. chair, thank you for your patience.
▶ 0:48:57Purex Sen. Tillis: I know from time to time I don't like delaying mark ups, but I thought this was a very important one because we got to a good outcome, and I appreciate Mr. blanche working in good faith, and I am prepared to vote yes today and his confirmation -- or, on moving his confirmation, nomination, forward. >> thank you, chairman.
▶ 0:49:22Purex Sen. Tillis: Today I think is a sad and embarrassing day for this committee, as it looks like on a party-line vote we are going to advance out of this committee probably the most discreditable person to ever seek the office of attorney general of the united states. The reasons to vote against him number in the hundreds, but let's focus on a few where my republican colleagues purport to have great concern.
▶ 0:49:53Purex Sen. Tillis: Let's start with the epstein files. Where todd blanche participated in the cover up, continues to participate in the cover-up, and is responsible for a massive screwup of the release of the documents.
▶ 0:50:19Purex Sen. Tillis: Cover-up and screwup on the epstein files. What do I mean by cover-up? Well, first, they looked at four fbi 302's that were the testimony of a woman who told the fbi in a formal statement that she had been sexually assaulted and physically assaulted by donald trump around
▶ 0:50:51Purex Sen. Tillis: 13 or 14 years of age. Of those four 302's, they released one. The one that did not mention donald trump. Well, fortunately for transparency, these documents had been released in other areas and stamped. So people figured out that some were missing.
▶ 0:51:20Purex Sen. Tillis: With that, the other 302's that mentioned donald trump had to be produced. Only because they got caught were those 302's produced. Right now as we sit here, todd blanche is still sitting on 37 pages that are almost certainly the agents' notes off of which the 302's were taken.
▶ 0:51:51Purex Sen. Tillis: That should be disclosed under the epstein files law. But instead those 37 pages remain covered up. Where else did the cover-up go? Well, the department of justice is received suspicious activity reports from the treasury department about epstein's accounts, many of them related to russia.
▶ 0:52:17Purex Sen. Tillis: You'd think that an investigative body like the department of justice could look at a document called "suspicious activity report" and deduce that there might be suspicious activity. But did they even have a look?
▶ 0:52:40Purex Sen. Tillis: Billions of dollars in epstein fund transfers and the blanche justice department never even had a look. And then you get to ghislaine maxwell.
▶ 0:53:04Purex Sen. Tillis: A deputy attorney general flew to tallahassee to have a private meeting with a woman convicted of participating in epstein's depravity. And what was the upshot of that meeting? Was it to get more information about who else was culpable? About whose secrets were still being kept? No.
▶ 0:53:29Purex Sen. Tillis: It was to get exculpatory information about donald trump, and then reward her with a move to a club fed prison. The nominal excuse for that was, oh, she was in danger in her earlier prison. So we had to move her.
▶ 0:53:54Purex Sen. Tillis: How often does a prisoner allegedly facing threats or danger get moved to a less secure facility? I mean, think about it. It doesn't pass the test of commonsense. -- test of common sense.
▶ 0:54:23Purex Sen. Tillis: Between the botched disclosure, which revealed victims of epstein's depravity whose names have not been previously known -- in some cases with photographic images, their addresses, and in some case photographs without being fully clothed. Where does the buck stopped with that if not with Mr. blanche?
▶ 0:54:52Purex Sen. Tillis: -- stop with that if not with Mr. blanche? That was an epic botch I did real harm to epstein's victims. Voting for this guy today gives their blessing to the screwup, to the botched release that even pam bondi pointed at blanche as responsible for, and it gives
▶ 0:55:23Purex Sen. Tillis: The blessing to his continuing role in the cover-up of epstein files. So there's epstein for you. Let me add the letter from the epstein victims to senators tillis and cornyn to be put into the record. Then we get to the crooked slush fund trump family tax amnesty.
▶ 0:55:55Purex Sen. Tillis: We have two new pieces of paper. One signed only by todd blanche. One not signed by anybody. Neither of which has any legal effect whatsoever. They are decorative. So what problems do they leave behind? One is, can you trust todd blanche going forward? I will tell you I do not. I think it would be unreasonable to trust him going forward.
▶ 0:56:29Purex Sen. Tillis: There is enough weasel room in these documents to drive a truck through. And what might that truck look like? Well you could get rid of the anti-weaponization fund for $1.776 billion, and in a month put out the trump justice fund for $1.9 billion.
▶ 0:56:57Purex Sen. Tillis: Nothing in this document prevents anything like that from happening. You can open a drive-up window at the department of justice for cop beaters from january 6 to come through and get friendly federal claims acts settlements from the department of justice. They are already handing out settlements to trump's allies. What's to prevent the drive-up window?
▶ 0:57:28Purex Sen. Tillis: C'mon in. Here we are. We have the friendly form for you to file and here is a check. Nothing prevents the cop beaters from being funded by the trump department of justice. Let's assume that we really have made a big improvement here.
▶ 0:57:55Purex Sen. Tillis: Let's assume that the burglar has been forced to give back some of the jewelry he stole. Being forced to give back some ill-gotten gains doesn't mean you're not still a burglar. There is a question of the man's character.
▶ 0:58:24Purex Sen. Tillis: That he was willing to get into these schemes in the first place. Into what george will called the sludge of self-dealing of this administration.
▶ 0:58:44Purex Sen. Tillis: Even if there isn't slush fund 2.0, and even if there isn't the drive-up window for cop beaters, there is a real problem with an individual who would agree to that in the first place. To me that should be disqualifying. The last bit on that is how he got there.
▶ 0:59:14Purex Sen. Tillis: Let's not forget that there is an ongoing proceeding in florida in federal court with an open question, whether todd blanche committed a fraud upon the court. We don't hear that term fraud upon the court very often. Is probably the worst thing you can accuse someone of in a court proceeding. It means you are an officer of the court.
▶ 0:59:46Purex Sen. Tillis: It means you abused the process of the court, and you did so in order to accomplish an unjust and wrongful result. It's actually worse than contempt of court. It is so bad that in the history of the department of justice no senior official has ever been even accused of a fraud upon the court. And we're advancing this guy before that question is settled in florida?
▶ 1:00:17Purex Sen. Tillis: While there is still a bar issue, a disciplinary issue with the new york bar related to that misconduct? Fraud on the court is a big deal, and it's not going away. Last of all, you've just got the general dishonesty and incompetence of the operation that todd blanche is running.
▶ 1:00:47Purex Sen. Tillis: And I'm not going to go through the list. It would take the whole day. The let me go through a couple of summaries of it -- but let me go through a couple of summaries of it. The economist magazine -- not exactly a left-wing publication -- had its lead article, its cover article, on the U.S.
▶ 1:01:13Purex Sen. Tillis: Department of justice entitled " degradation and process -- "degradation in process." I ask unanimous consent to add that article to my remarks.
▶ 1:01:27Chair Grassley: Without objection.
▶ 1:01:30Sen. Whitehouse: And then here is a study from pro-public. Federal judges chastised trump's justice department for unethical and unseemly conduct. I will read the first sentence. Across the country federal judges are calling out department of justice lawyers, questioning in unprecedented ways whether they can be trusted to tell the truth or uphold centuries old legal norms. I ask unanimous consent that the article be added to the record.
▶ 1:02:01Sen. Whitehouse: Then there is a group called just security, which reads through decisions from federal judges around the country and gathers the incidences in which the federal judge has challenged the integrity or competence of the department of justice. It's about this thick.
▶ 1:02:30Sen. Whitehouse: I'll just ask to have its introduction put into the record. If my colleagues want to go and look and see what the avalanche of misconduct that blanche's leadership has precipitated looks like, you know where to find the report. Here is the introduction.
▶ 1:02:56Sen. Whitehouse: It talks about the presumption of regularity. A judicially created document with a long and contested history. The doctrine affords the executive branch a distinct advantage by instructing courts to presume that executive officials have properly discharged their official duties, and what the report characterized is the disruption of that presumption of regularity in this department of
▶ 1:03:28Sen. Whitehouse: Justice. I ask unanimous consent that be added as well. Since I have mentioned it, I will also ask george will's article where I described his description of the settlement between the president and the executive branch exemplifying the administration's sludge of self-dealing. That also be added to the record.
▶ 1:04:00Sen. Whitehouse: The last question I'm left with here is, what's left of this committee? What's left of this committee when we don't demand straight answers from witnesses? How many times has this department of justice been asked what became of the $58,000 that the fbi reported that it handed to Mr. tom homan in a bribery sting?
▶ 1:04:31Sen. Whitehouse: That's administrative stuff. That gets reported. There is an account. If you check the money out you have to check the money back. There is an administrative trail. We can't get any information about that. Our republican colleagues see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. Kash patel lied to this committee sitting in front of us.
▶ 1:05:02Sen. Whitehouse: Is there any interest in that? A time when republicans in congress seem agitated about b iden officials lying to congress? We got lies right here, folks.
▶ 1:05:22Sen. Whitehouse: I don't know where this committee goes after it stops being taken seriously, because all you have to be is on the right partisan side to get this committee to roll over and play dead. Thank you, chairman.
▶ 1:06:00Sen. Whitehouse: >> thank you very much, chairman. Appreciate that we are hearing from our colleagues at this important moment for this important vote. As you know this year thousands of I.c.e. And border patrol agent's descended on minnesota. Two of my constituents renée good and alex pretti wrere killed. They should be alive today.
▶ 1:06:29Sen. Whitehouse: After they were killed the federal government refused to cooperate with state and local law enforcement blocking investigators from accessing the scene of alex's death, even though they had a judicial warrant. Federal investigators mishandled evidence and they failed to process the process renée good's car for evidence. Everyone in this room have seen those videos.
▶ 1:06:53Sen. Whitehouse: Everyone in this room knows that at the very least of those cases should have been, and should be, investigated. Instead of cooperating with local law enforcement, which I pressed the department to do from the beginning, and as the justice department had done in past cases, including following the assassination of speaker melissa hortman and her husband, the marching orders from the justice department to federal
▶ 1:07:24Sen. Whitehouse: Prosecutors in minnesota were to investigate renée good and her wife. Joe thompson, who is the lead fraud prosecutor in my state and who I recommended to serve as acting U.S. under this administration, and was appointed as acting, he resigned after that. He resigned along with 14 other prosecutors because they did not believe what they were being asked to do less ethical. These are career prosecutors.
▶ 1:07:56Sen. Whitehouse: No politics. Not interested in politics. Then more than six months after rene and alex's deaths, when I asked acting attorney general blanche of the department would finally fully cooperate with state law enforcement and these investigations, he said it depends on what "cooperation means." the flood were open to some extent. Some information was finally passed along to the state, but it's unclear if they have all the information that they need.
▶ 1:08:29Sen. Whitehouse: Minnesotans deserve transparency and accountability. And not just for the killings. We also sell repeated violations of minnesotans' constitutional rights. I asked todd blanche about one such case. I asked if it is unacceptable for federal agents to forcibly enter someone's home without a warrant and dragged them into the street without even checking if they have the right person.
▶ 1:08:56Sen. Whitehouse: This happened with an elder, U.S. citizen, saying he was a U.S. citizen, dragged out in his underwear and crocs, put in a car, and driven around for an hour before they realized they had the wrong guy. Mr. chairman, when I asked todd blanche about this and if it was a violation, he said "it depends" and it was not a black or white answer. What is black or white?
▶ 1:09:25Sen. Whitehouse: Is it a nominee to be the chief law enforcement officer in our country should be able to condemn the actions taken in that case? Upholding the independence of the justice department is vital to its legitimacy. I know this firsthand. Before I was elected to the senate I served for eight years as a chief prosecutor for the largest prosecutor's office in minnesota.
▶ 1:09:49Sen. Whitehouse: I lead teams of hundreds of line attorneys and professional staff. And like acting attorney general blanche I would sometimes receive calls from powerful people about cases trying to influence the outcome, trying to get a plea, trying to get us to dismiss a case.
▶ 1:10:13Sen. Whitehouse: But no matter who it was, I made clear to the people who worked for me that we weren't playing that game. I made clear that investigations in charting decisions were made on the facts and the law. Not once did I cross that line. As I told todd blanche. Once you cross that line, it's hard to go back.
▶ 1:10:35Sen. Whitehouse: The minute you crossed the line and allow anyone else to influence the prosecutor's decision, whether that call is a friend or a lobbyist for the president of the united states, you can never go back. I think todd blanche knows this. Before his confirmation as deputy attorney general he told me he understood that his clients are the people of the united states, not the president.
▶ 1:11:02Sen. Whitehouse: To quote senator adam schiff " what happened to that, todd blanche." since then, however, acting attorney general blanche has said of the justice department's investigations into people the president has had issues within the past, blanche said, that is his right and indeed that is his duty to do that. In fact, the president has repeatedly directed the justice department to engage in political prosecutions related to his personal grievances.
▶ 1:11:34Sen. Whitehouse: Fbi director james comey, former cyber office director, jerome powell -- the former chair of the federal reserve, the new york attorney general, civil-rights organizations, journalists, even sitting U.S. senators. While acting attorney general blanche told me that he believes all decisions have been made, and his words, solely based on the facts and the law, it's not credible. We have seen the president's social media posts.
▶ 1:12:05Sen. Whitehouse: We've heard from career prosecutors. We've seen the judges appointed by presidents of both parties throwing out meritless cases and subpoenas. Mr. chairman, if the president can direct prosecutors to go after people like jim call me and jerome powell -- jim comey and jerome powell he can go after any american. That's not equal justice under the law.
▶ 1:12:31Sen. Whitehouse: We've all seen the department can be used also to reward the presidents friends. Under acting attorney general blanche, the department moved to vacate convictions against the leaders of the oath keepers and proud boys who participated in january 6 pier and a matter of less public note but incredibly important to our economy is antitrust.
▶ 1:12:55Sen. Whitehouse: It is devastating to our economy if the justice department stands back and lets the big get bigger and the small get crushed. And that is exactly what's happening right now. As a former top trump administration antitrust official said, antitrust cases in this last year "were being resolved based on political connections, not the legal merit ." that's just one example.
▶ 1:13:27Sen. Whitehouse: After ousting gail slater the former head of the antitrust division, who 20 of the 22 senators on this committee voted for, the department abandoned the case against live nation. After the president met with the company's ceo and discussed the litigation. We know how that story ended with the state's attorney general, democrat and republican, continuing that case and winning in a big way and now we await the remedies.
▶ 1:13:57Sen. Whitehouse: Not from the sellout settlement, but from the attorney general's of this country. Finally, I have great concerns about acting attorney general blanche's willingness to uphold the departments independence as the president tries to use the department to undermine our democracy ahead of the midterms.
▶ 1:14:17Sen. Whitehouse: We know that under todd blanche's leadership the justice department has already tried to coerce states, including minnesota, on the very day alex pretti was killed, to turn over voter sensitive information. In fact, they tried to they tried to tie that to the I.c.e. Presence. Givers is that, we will change that.
▶ 1:14:42Sen. Whitehouse: 19 federal courts appointed by both republicans and democrats have now found this effort to be unlawful. The president has also quoted the unconstitutional idea -- floated the unconstitutional deal of ending mail-in voting.
▶ 1:15:08Sen. Whitehouse: According to state election officials, including minnesota's secretary of state steve simon, the justice department stopped providing the trainings that have long been standard to ensure states are prepared to prevent and respond to emerging election threats. When I pressed him, todd blanche would not even definitively say he will not deploy armed agents to polling locations.
▶ 1:15:35Sen. Whitehouse: Whether it is not answering these questions, not providing transparency and accountability, or repeatedly failing to enforce our nation's civil and voting rights laws, reproductive laws, or consumer laws, I'm concerned with todd blanche's leadership at the department.
▶ 1:15:53Sen. Whitehouse: What we need at the department of justice is the courage to stand up to the rule of law -- for the rule of law, like we saw from tom calhoun though has, a prosecutor at the minnesota U.S. attorney's office during operation metro surge.
▶ 1:16:09Sen. Whitehouse: He said what the justice department told his office to do was "antithetical to the principles of law enforcement." hey can scott -- who clerked for justices roberts and cavanaugh in the lead prosecutor in the mayor adams case who resigned instead of carrying out politicized orders wrote this.
▶ 1:16:36Sen. Whitehouse: "I expect you will eventually find someone who was enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion, but it was never going to be me. When I think about the countless justice department officials who have stood up for the rule of law over the last 18 months, it is clear that the president's lawyer todd blanche is not the right person to be chief law enforcement officer of the united states.
▶ 1:17:06Sen. Whitehouse: Unlike the public servants are just mentioned, he has shown he sees his role to serve donald trump and not the american people and not the rule of law. I oppose his nomination.
▶ 1:17:18Sen. Coons: Thank you for the opportunity to speak before we take this vote. Considering who should service the next attorney general is one of the most important things we will do as a committee. I think it's important the american people understand the reasoning of each of us who are about to take this vote.
▶ 1:17:38Sen. Coons: I have been consistent in saying there are three factors I considered for every cabinet nominee, and I have worked well with attorneys general of both parties and for presidents of both parties. I review their experience, capacity to do the job, but also their policy views and their character and independence. Their ability to do the job with integrity. Today I will focus on the third part, character, independence, and integrity.
▶ 1:18:05Sen. Coons: Throughout the decades since the watergate crisis, both parties have recognized the importance of an attorney general who will stand up to the president and say no and serve as an attorney general in defense of the constitution, not just the agenda of anyone president. Acting attorney general blanche meet that standard? We have clear evidence he will not. You can take us from us forwards before this committee, sing the department is not independent from president trump and should not be.
▶ 1:18:35Sen. Coons: Frankly, among many things articulated in great detail by senators white house and klobuchar, the anti-weaponization fund as a proposal and a concept, along with the sweeping liability release order that Mr. blanche signed my well be the most brazenly corrupt and unethical think this administration has attempted.
▶ 1:18:55Sen. Coons: It is bad enough that for weeks he resisted the simple request of my republican colleagues to just say in writing that the order is revoked but he's refusing to make it abiding binding guarantee and sworn statements emitted before a judge. Is this because once confirmed he will simply revoke the new order as he did once before it? Nothing would stop him from doing just that.
▶ 1:19:21Sen. Coons: I have enjoyed serving with senator cornyn as cochair of the law enforcement caucus, with senator tillis on important intellectual property issues, but we will vote in opposite ways today. I thought it was important to lay out why. In my view we never should have gotten to this place. As acting attorney general, when asked by the president to do something plainly unethical and corrupt, Mr. blanche should have simply said no. He did not do that.
▶ 1:19:48Sen. Coons: I pressed him in his confirmation hearing whether he would even try to talk president trump out of this widely rejected plan. He refused to answer. Let's just talk briefly about transparency. They have called themselves the most transparent administration and department of justice in our history. In fact, they are as transparent as the wall behind us. Whether in Mr.
▶ 1:20:09Sen. Coons: Blanche's refusal to answer questions about the anti-weaponization fund, refusal to advocate for victims rather than perpetrators in the epstein matter, or his willingness to answer my request for transparency on a pfizer court ruling that both the chair -- fisa court ruling, or the olc opinion. I met with Mr. blanche last week.
▶ 1:20:38Sen. Coons: I raised these issues with him and I await his replies. Our citizens want and truly deserve an independent and transparent department of justice. I don't think Mr. blanche can or even wants to deliver on that goal. I asked my colleagues to put yourself in our shoes. If four years ago we were considering the nomination of an ag that had said and done these things, would you have done? I urge my colleagues to vote against his nomination. I will vote against Mr.
▶ 1:21:07Sen. Coons: Blanche and it's my hope you will surprise me and exceed my expectations, but with a heavy heart I'm fairly certain he will not.
▶ 1:21:15Chair Grassley: Senator blumenthal.
▶ 1:21:18Sen. Blumenthal: Thank you, Mr. chairman. I want to join in thanking you for allowing us to speak before the vote. "I'm his lawyer." that is what Mr. blanche told us he was. "I'm his lawyer." namely donald trump's lawyer.
▶ 1:21:50Sen. Blumenthal: Maya angelou famously said, "when someone shows you who they are, leave them the first time -- believe them the first time." todd blanche is donald trump's lawyer. He will say anything, do anything, conceal anything for his boss. Much as it organized crime, they can aerie would do anything, say anything, and conceal anything for his boss.
▶ 1:22:20Sen. Blumenthal: That is why Mr. blanche was held by a judge in florida to have committed a fraud on the court. Todd blanche is now in effect committing a fraud on congress.
▶ 1:22:41Sen. Blumenthal: The documents he has submitted, and I will hold them up here, that purport to change some agreement are in effect meaningless. They have no effect. They are nonenforceable.
▶ 1:23:07Sen. Blumenthal: In just a few weeks thousands of young law school students will begin a contracts course. What they will learn is that a contract can't be modified or changed by some outside party when there is a meeting of the minds. There was in effect and agreement, a meeting of the minds between donald trump and the united states of america to settle these cases. Now todd blanche purports to change it.
▶ 1:23:38Sen. Blumenthal: This document is a sham. It is a sham and a fraud on the congress insofar as it seeks to change our minds by representing something that is patently false. Commentators have talked about loopholes. There are no loopholes here. This document itself is a sham.
▶ 1:24:07Sen. Blumenthal: In fact, one of its statements is that it incorporates all of todd blanche's testimony before this committee. I want to hold up one part of that testimony.
▶ 1:24:27Sen. Blumenthal: Todd blanche himself says that agreement is unenforceable -- I suppose of counsel sought to enforce it, potentially they could. Of course they could. Tomorrow donald trump's counsel can go to court and seek to establish that thug fund.
▶ 1:24:55Sen. Blumenthal: Senator tillis call that a payout to punks fund, if he chooses to do so. It is an enforceable agreement no matter what todd blanche says about it. And if you don't believe me, you can listen to one of the most ardent advocates of that anti-weaponization fund who said the quiet part allowed on twitter recently.
▶ 1:25:25Sen. Blumenthal: Mike howell, who chairman grassley called as a witness before this committee last year. He retweeted Mr. blanche's announcement with his own commentary. "can be undone after tuesday. The anti-weaponization fund is great." the president yesterday in the oval office repeated his commitment to the anti-weaponization fund.
▶ 1:25:54Sen. Blumenthal: We don't need to say the quiet part out loud. The president is shouting it. The position of the united states attorney general is a position of supreme trust.
▶ 1:26:13Sen. Blumenthal: Any of us who have worked in the department of justice -- I was the united state for connecticut -- knows that the attorney general of the united states, like every lawyer who represents the united states, has a trust in going to court, in making representation. There is a presumption of regularity when a government lawyer appears before the court.
▶ 1:26:41Sen. Blumenthal: That is the sacred trust that a government lawyer bears. Todd blanche has betrayed that trust. And his betrayal of that trust is disqualifying. For his nomination.
▶ 1:27:05Sen. Blumenthal: Todd blanche showed us who he was also when he during this hearing referred to the attack on the united states capitol on january 6 as events. They are not events. They were a riot, insurrection, and attack on the capitol. We were there. We know it was.
▶ 1:27:33Sen. Blumenthal: It was a violent, unlawful attack on the nation's capitol that cost brave members of law enforcement their lives. He purports to stand for law enforcement, and yet he is in favor of a slush fund that in effect rewards those individuals who attacked capitol police and that insurrection and riot.
▶ 1:28:02Sen. Blumenthal: He refuses to see it for what it was and describe it accurately and truthfully. His rehearsed lines prepared by the white house legal team are meant to protect the president's feelings. They demonstrate an unwavering loyalty to the president. That is the through line. He is the president's lawyer.
▶ 1:28:32Sen. Blumenthal: He showed us who he was as well when he was talking about reproductive rights. In a private call last week, Mr. blanche again said the quiet part out loud. In fact, he shouted. He said to the participants on the call that he would work to restrict abortion in every single state. That is not enforcing the law. That is a zealot.
▶ 1:29:01Sen. Blumenthal: A warrior seeking to advocate the president's position against reproductive rights. He wants to block states enacting their own policies and laws. He wants to make abortion access follow the laws of abortion ban states. He wants to strip americans of the right to choose and strip states of their right to govern.
▶ 1:29:26Sen. Blumenthal: The part of this agreement that purports to limit the immunity under our tax laws and protect the president against audits is in fact no limitation. It preserves all of the presidents rights to be above the law -- president's rights to be above the law. No person is above the law but todd blanche is agreeing to put the president above the law.
▶ 1:29:58Sen. Blumenthal: There are more than 400,000 other americans who suffered the same harm as donald trump when their private tax information was taken and released. We have in this country a principal of equal protection under the law, presumably if donald trump gets the deal, they would be eligible to assert their claims for the same rights.
▶ 1:30:27Sen. Blumenthal: If donald trump is protected against paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes by this deal, perhaps so should they in claims they may file. The cost to the government is staggering if this deal is approved, as todd blanche purports to do. And that deal is still in effect as a result of these documents.
▶ 1:30:58Sen. Blumenthal: Mr. blanche showed us who he was when he ducked and dodged my questions about deep sixing and killing of innocent -- investigation of david and investigation of david ag entile.
▶ 1:31:20Sen. Blumenthal: He reportedly paid for clemency was rubbed his victims of nearly $16 million in restitution. When united states attorney tried to investigate, Mr. blanche reportedly killed the probe. That is not the behavior of an attorney general who upholds the trust of this position. That is the behavior of donald trump's personal lawyer.
▶ 1:31:52Sen. Blumenthal: Finally, the most sacred rights we have in a democracy is the right to vote. Freely and fairly. My fear is todd blanche will be donald trump's lawyer and suppressing the vote -- in suppressing the vote. He will defend donald trump if the president sends a militia or I.c.e. Agent or the national guard to the polls to disrupt the elections.
▶ 1:32:22Sen. Blumenthal: He will defend donald trump if he seeks to distort the count after the election. My fear is that todd blanche will represent donald trump and he will put donald trump ahead of the american people and the right to vote. I cannot support him.
▶ 1:32:48Sen. Blumenthal: This committee will in effect betrayed its trust in the party-line vote that is to follow and approve todd blanche as attorney general of the united states. I will be introducing a resolution today rejecting this tax immunity deal as possible precident, seeking to stop it as a means for others seeking the same kind of illegal
▶ 1:33:20Sen. Blumenthal: Privilege that donald trump will have as a result of this deal. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:33:25Chair Grassley: Senator hirono.
▶ 1:33:28Sen. Hirono: It's important to hear from members before this vote is taken. I asked questions in three broad areas during his hearing two weeks ago. I asked him about the epstein files, specifically I asked whether he would cooperate with the new mexico department of justice's investigation into epstein's zorro branch.
▶ 1:33:53Sen. Hirono: I asked if he would help state law enforcement get the information that it was seeking from the epstein files. At the hearing he said doj would cooperate, but in follow-up questions for the record he dodged. I understand that doj is actually stonewalling -- stonewalling the new mexico department of justice in its request for information in its investigation.
▶ 1:34:23Sen. Hirono: This public show of concern contrasted with private dismissiveness is how he treated the survivors who met with him, the survivors of jeffrey epstein. I asked one of the survivors about the meeting he finally had with the survivors.
▶ 1:34:45Sen. Hirono: This survivor said, "we walked away with the feeling of demoralization, because he did not come into that meeting looking to work with us in good faith." I thank and commend the survivors for their courage in fighting for justice. The second category of questions I asked Mr.
▶ 1:35:08Sen. Hirono: Blanche two weeks ago center dot doj's independence -- centered on doj's independence. Do you believe it is the presidents right and duty to order the investigation or prosecution of his perceived enemies? Pretty simple question. Mr. blanche responded, "I can't answer that yes or no." he might as well have just said yes.
▶ 1:35:39Sen. Hirono: In follow-up questions for the record, I asked the simple question, if confirmed, will your highest duty beats the constitution of the united states or to the president of the united states? He left the answer to that question blank. Blank. When he is sworn in as attorney general, he will have to swear to uphold, support, and defend the constitution.
▶ 1:36:10Sen. Hirono: But we know that oath will take a backseat to his loyalty to the president. The third category of questions I asked was related to the slush fund. At his hearing I asked him whether he had rescinded the order setting up parameters for the so-called anti-weaponization fund.
▶ 1:36:35Sen. Hirono: He testified he had rescinded it and questions for the record, give me the date of when you rescinded the order. He did not answer the question with the date. He refused to end the fund in writing until he was forced into it in order to secure needed votes from my republican colleagues.
▶ 1:37:04Sen. Hirono: How can we trust that this so-called death will be lasting when he has shown his words to us at the hearing do not matter? He was under oath that the hearing, but he's hardly going to prosecute himself for lying to congress, which he did. Mr. chairman, I intended to judge Mr. blanche not by his words but by his actions.
▶ 1:37:30Sen. Hirono: Even though he said he would cooperate with the new mexico attorney general's office and their epstein investigation, it seems he will not actually do so. Even though he claims to follow the constitution and the law, he acts as the president's lawyer, catering to the president's whims and protecting the president.
▶ 1:37:56Sen. Hirono: Even though he said repeatedly at anti-weaponization fund is dead, he had to be forced, literally kicking and screaming to memorialize that death in writing. That non-writing will mean little -- nonbinding writing will mean little when the president once the fund. Believe me, the president is loudly saying he wants the fund. Who you think Mr. blanche will side with?
▶ 1:38:23Sen. Hirono: Is he going to uphold the so-called nonbinding statement to secure today's vote for some of my republican colleagues or the wishes of the president to whom he is loyal above all?
▶ 1:38:40Sen. Hirono: At a time when the department of justice has lost thousands of career attorneys with a millennia of combined experience, the doj's independence from politics is no longer in existence.
▶ 1:38:56Sen. Hirono: I cannot vote in favor of some of his actions so clearly make him ineligible to serve as attorney general even of a department as compromised as this department of justice, which basically is a department of retribution and revenge. I urge my colleagues to vote no as well. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:39:20Chair Grassley: Senator booker.
▶ 1:39:24Sen. Booker: , I am shocked. I have been here 14 years. I have not seen something as farcical as what I witnessed in the last few weeks. We have a nominee that it seemed like some of my colleagues were saying is unqualified unless he gives some kind of guarantee that what we now know on both sides of the aisle americans thinks is outrageous.
▶ 1:39:50Sen. Booker: A slush fund was created for the president to dole out to the people who had done the most awful things, literally people that stormed the capitol and be police officers this building. They would not get taxpayer dollars as some kind of reward. Universal disagreement on that, and the fact that the president of the net state is not above the law and should not be able to cheat on their taxes.
▶ 1:40:15Sen. Booker: I sat back for days now looking forward to us at least -- all the things todd blanche has done that his disqualified him for this job, I thought at least we were going to be able to get an end to that nightmare. And here's the thing, Mr. chairman. Here is the thing, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:40:47Sen. Booker: You even have conservatives coming out and saying these things are not worth the paper they are drawn on. I have a lot of respect for my colleagues. I love the state of texas. But I will say it clear. This is all hat and no cattle. It is hard for me to say this is a plant-based guy come u -- guy, but where's the beef? This is ridiculous. We have got nothing.
▶ 1:41:13Sen. Booker: No guarantees whatsoever that this slush fund still can't go forward. We have got nothing that the president of the united states can't cheat on his taxes and have no accountability. Dear god folks. It is not like we are talking about a president who is a saint. No president in the history of this country has been caught in tax cheating more than this one.
▶ 1:41:39Sen. Booker: A pulitzer prize-winning documentation of his tax cheating came out in 2018. Pulitzer prize. Donald trump says I will sue you. It's all wrong. That suit was thrown out because the president is a tax cheat. But it did not stop with that. He was a taxi with his nonprofit. He created a so-called charity but what did he do with that charity? It was cited by the state of new york for self-dealing.
▶ 1:42:11Sen. Booker: For tax cheating. It was shut down. We have a known arsonist and just in this committee given him a whole barrel full of gasoline to light on fire our tax laws and have no accountability for the conflagration. This is so ridiculous that we are sitting back here and allowing this to happen. A president that we know is a tax cheat. That is a fact. That is a fact.
▶ 1:42:42Sen. Booker: We have now just given him immunity to his tax cheating. Here's an admission I'm going to make to my colleagues on the other. We have president who have not done things that pass the smell test. I think this committee should pass a law that no children of the presidents should be able to graf graift of their parent's office.
▶ 1:43:11Sen. Booker: It is ridiculous what we have normalized in america. The president's children can go and sit on boards and make money. That is wrong and that is correct. But they have become so obsessed with the millions that the biden's have made that they have ignored completely the billions of dollars that the trump family is making.
▶ 1:43:35Sen. Booker: That is like being obsessed and using a magnifying glass to study the stain on the living room carpet one behind you is on mountain excrement covering the living room couch and coffee table. This is so outrageous, the lack of proportionality going on, it is laughable. This is absolutely insane that we have a president of the united states that has now made $2 billion doing what?
▶ 1:44:09Sen. Booker: Let me create my own crypto coin and have foreign nations invest in it. By the way, if you're a corporation in america, put my children on the board and they will get no-bid contracts. This is the judiciary committee. We are supposed to be checking and balancing this nation. Why have people on both sides of the l given up on any trust in government? It's because we are surrendering any shred of integrity left.
▶ 1:44:39Sen. Booker: And now we are letting an attorney general become the highest law enforcement officer in the land and putting no holds whatsoever. I had hoped for two weeks we would get something. Two weeks that we would have something substantive to stop the world's greatest presidential tax cheat from cheating. And we have done nothing. And this man is now going to sail to the floor and history is going to show it.
▶ 1:45:12Sen. Booker: I know it's going to come out and history on this president I know what's going to come out on todd blanche. In the simplest way that should outrage any shred of decency my colic should have -- this is not left or right. This is not presidential enrichment. This is the deepest, most sacred urgency of this committee and I know colleagues on both sides care about it. Victims of crime should have justice.
▶ 1:45:45Sen. Booker: And here in the united states of america one of the greatest sex trafficking rings we have ever seen, when only two people of over a thousand women sexually assaulted and raped, only two people have been held accountable. There are other criminals out there that have not been found. What did the man we are talking about becoming the attorney general do? He joined in the situation room in the white house.
▶ 1:46:16Sen. Booker: You will know what the situation room is, right? This is where you go to deal with the greatest national security threats in a classified room to deal with the safety of our nation. Yet this administration in the situation room calls an emergency meeting at which todd blanche was there to say what are we going to do because the president appears in the epstein files hundreds of times. They didn't get together to say this is really bad.
▶ 1:46:48Sen. Booker: This is eroding trust in the justice system. This is eroding trust in the rule of law. We have to find a way to hold powerful people accountable. No. How do we protect the president? What happened after that? One of the most unusual things in the history of our country happened after that. Todd blanche, at the highest heights of our justice department, ran to the prison of glenn maxwell. This is unprecedented.
▶ 1:47:20Sen. Booker: This is lawyers tell me is untoward. This is corrupting. He did not study the case files or speak to the prosecutors. He met with her for two days, insulting every victim that had been asking for a meeting for years. After two days of meetings, did we get information that led to an indictment? No.
▶ 1:47:48Sen. Booker: Did you get information that led to new investigations? No. Did we get one more conviction? No. What did we get? They convicted sex offender was able to leave her confinement and go to the cushy list prison in our land -- cushiest present in our land that by doj law is a violation of their principles.
▶ 1:48:16Sen. Booker: So, if ghislaine maxwell is sitting in the lowest possible confinement after getting no information that helped us get one more investigation started and has been silent and the man responsible for that we are about to make the attorney general of the united states of america, this man is not our lawyer. He is not america's lawyer.
▶ 1:48:48Sen. Booker: He is about to become trump's sword against his adversaries and shield against. Any scrutiny the shield is going to shield him from tax cheating. The shield will shield him from investigation for any involvement he may have had an epstein's deeds. And the sword, I've seen it. Unprecedented with the attorney general should investigate colleagues here on this committee. This is farcical.
▶ 1:49:20Sen. Booker: It would be laughably funny if it wasn't so dangerous. We are about to put a person and one of the most powerful positions in the land. Vital for not only enforcing the law, protecting national security, but also vital for upholding our democracy. My republican colleagues sound like jan brady. Marsha, marsha, marsha. Biden, biden, biden.
▶ 1:49:52Sen. Booker: You are worried about a pickpocket when it comes to grand theft larceny. When it comes to our democracy, you are worried about someone doing petty theft while there is the murder of our democratic traditions going on before our eyes. We are in dangerous waters, folks. We are in dangerous waters.
▶ 1:50:14Sen. Booker: We are turning the ideals of justice in this committee into a mockery by letting the least qualified person, a person proven to do donald trump's will over the law. He's about trump and not truth. He's about corruption and not the constitution. He's about being donald trump's lawyer and not the people's lawyer. This is so deeply wrong, we will rue the day we let this man have this much power under such a corrupt president. Thank you.
▶ 1:50:43Chair Grassley: Senator padilla.
▶ 1:50:47Sen. Padilla: Colleagues and members of the public, we are hearing a lot about this tax immunity deal. We have heard about todd blanche's mismanagement of the epstein case files. The evidence of todd blanche tearing out trump -- carrying out trump's political vindictiveness. I want to bring us back to what it is before us today.
▶ 1:51:15Sen. Padilla: 150 years ago, congress treated the department of justice and entrusted the attorney general with the sample of profound responsibility. To serve as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. To serve as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. Not the president's lawyer. The american people's lawyer. Even today go to the website.
▶ 1:51:48Sen. Padilla: The mission statement lists, "independence and impartiality" as its first core values. It says the department must follow, "the facts and the law wherever they may lead without prejudice or improper influence." 150 years ago, we created the department of justice. It exists today with these mission statements and core values.
▶ 1:52:19Sen. Padilla: That is the standard. And by that standard todd blanche fails. During the confirmation hearing he was asked whether he and donald trump are friends. Remember his response? He said I'm his lawyer. Then he tried to correct himself by saying, was his lawyer.
▶ 1:52:44Sen. Padilla: That is a remarkable slip for someone seeking to become attorney general of the united states. We know he spent hours and hours over the course of days preparing for the hearing, yet the first words out of his mouth when asked that question was, I'm his lawyer. The attorney general is not supposed to be the president's lawyer. The attorney general is supposed to be the country's lawyer.
▶ 1:53:17Sen. Padilla: If you recall I asked Mr. blanche whether the department of justice had an obligation to remain independent from improper political influence, including influence by the president, he refused to say yes. He tried to justify the department for the executive branch and the president's agenda.
▶ 1:53:44Sen. Padilla: The president's fixations is what he follows. It suggests he sees no problem with the president directing federal law enforcement to investigate and prosecute is received political enemies. -- perceived political enemies. It is not hypothetical.
▶ 1:54:05Sen. Padilla: We have seen investigations into former fbi director james comey, into new york attorney general letitia james, and a former cia director john brennan, and into our college both on this committee, senator schiff, and not on this committee, senator kelly. And more. At the same time Mr.
▶ 1:54:28Sen. Padilla: Blanche has shown little interest in ensuring federal officials themselves are held accountable when they violate the law. Including but not limited to the department of clement security. He basically stated his belief that the department should investigate and police themselves. I asked him about this. He was clearly incapable of doing so.
▶ 1:54:57Sen. Padilla: Federal agents shooting innocent civilians, killing united states citizens on the streets of our country. Detainees dying in record numbers in detention centers that are violating the standards they are supposed to maintain.
▶ 1:55:18Sen. Padilla: So it is clear that under todd blanche the primary job of the justice department will be to do things like defend all options to reward january 6 rioters who violently assaulted police officers. To ensure immunity for the president, his family, for tax crimes.
▶ 1:55:44Sen. Padilla: No, even with the so-called deal that has not changed.under the suppose , is prevented from creating a new anti-weaponization fund tomorrow by some other name. It is not prevent Mr. blanche from using taxpayer funds to reward january 6 rioters.
▶ 1:56:07Sen. Padilla: It does not prohibit donald trump and his sons from receiving immunity for their tax crimes. To me this does not seem like a deal at all. But ultimately it does nothing to address the real fundamental root problem.
▶ 1:56:31Sen. Padilla: The department of justice with no independence, corruption it should be prosecuting in a department that rewards people who violently storm the capitol and assault law enforcement. What message does that send to supporters of the president after the next presidential election when we try to certify future results?
▶ 1:57:02Sen. Padilla: All this by all this while the administration is ignoring the plight of people across the country who feel not just burton but -- who feel burdened by increased costs. What does that say the crime victims across the country? Survivors of sex trafficking.
▶ 1:57:27Sen. Padilla: What does that say to the families of those who lost their lives at the hands of federal agents and agents face no accountability? This is not equal justice under the law. This is not the department of justice the way it is supposed to be. This is not an attorney general that the american people deserve. Our country deserves better. Todd blanche does not fit. I urge my colleagues to oppose this nomination.
▶ 1:57:59Chair Grassley: We have two speakers left and get over here so we can vote after senator schiff is done speaking. Senator welch.
▶ 1:58:11Sen. Welch: Mr. chairman, this is a story about how a young and talented and idealistic man committed to public service, the prosecutor's prosecutor, became the new person in service of a corrupt president. It's a story of ambition and loyalty and political calculation eroding resistance and idealism.
▶ 1:58:42Sen. Welch: Mr. blanche has used his considerable talents to accommodate the corrupt goals of a corrupt president. By the way, Mr. chairman, if we rejected todd blanche, that corrupt president would find a new todd blanche. But blanche is also a story about how a once great institution is relinquishing its own power and capitulating to a corrupt president.
▶ 1:59:12Sen. Welch: Is there no line that the U.S. senate will not allow this president to cross? The senate confirmed bondi, hegseth, patel, noem. The president is abusing his authority every day in every way. Shame on him.
▶ 1:59:36Sen. Welch: But the united states senate is failing to use its power any day in any way to protect the american people. Should not the U.S. senate use its advice and consent authority to demand competence and integrity? Did we do that with bondi, with hegseth, with patel, now blanche? Should not the U.S.
▶ 2:00:00Sen. Welch: Senate do its taxing authority to stop trump's tariffs that we basically all opposed and are doing so much damage to small businesses and individuals in vermont and all our states? Should not the U.S. senate uses constitutional power of the purse to stop the invasion by president trump, the executive, into the power of the purse? Should not the U.S.
▶ 2:00:24Sen. Welch: Senate use its constitutional authority to declare war to stop this illegal war in iran? Four at least even debate hit? A war that president trump is losing. Mr. chairman, the president is abusing his authority. But we are failing as the U.S. senate to use our authority.
▶ 2:00:54Sen. Welch: When we fail to use our authority, we fail to meet our responsibility to the people of this country. We can stop capitulating today by doing our job and rejecting a completely unqualified man to be the top law enforcement official in this country. I will vote no.
▶ 2:01:16Chair Grassley: Senator schiff.
▶ 2:01:20Sen. Schiff: Thank you, Mr. chairman. I speak in opposition to the nomination of todd blanche to be attorney general. He should be rejected for five broad reasons. The first, he used the department of justice to enrich the president of the united states. That is not the job of an attorney general. How has he done this?
▶ 2:01:49Sen. Schiff: Well, let's look at the irs settlement. Bear in mind, this was a lawsuit brought by donald trump not as a private citizen. He had every opportunity to bring this lawsuit in between his first term and second term but he did not do so. In fact, he waited so long that the statute of limitations ran on that potential claim. He waited until he became president.
▶ 2:02:17Sen. Schiff: Why did he wait to bring this $10 billion lawsuit until he became president? He waited so he would have the power of the presidency to leverage the irs and the justice department to make him more money. He waits until he's president, sues the irs for $10 billion in stunning act of self-dealing. He purports to settle with himself.
▶ 2:02:45Sen. Schiff: Key is represented by his personal lawyers on the one hand and by his other lawyers at the department of justice on the other hand. In a collusive use of the litigation process that was found by a judge in florida to be a potential fraud on the court. To be brought for an improper purpose of extracting some kind of financial benefit to the president. Boy, was it a benefit.
▶ 2:03:14Sen. Schiff: By some estimates and forms, $600 million in tax benefit for the president, his family, his sons, the businesses, the affiliates, and all the rest. There was an effort -- I appreciate my colleagues from texas and north carolina making an effort to try to reign in this tax settlement.
▶ 2:03:34Sen. Schiff: But what they attempted to achieve has not been achieved, as my colleague from texas rightly asked during his questioning of todd blanche during the confirmation hearing, this is reportedly an agreement between two parties. Can you represent just one of them for just one of them bind the other? The answer was no. Blanche acknowledged his statement alone could not bind the parties.
▶ 2:04:02Sen. Schiff: The president could insist on honoring the terms of the settlement agreement. Does this unsigned one page somehow change any of that? The answer is no. Look at this statement.
▶ 2:04:20Sen. Schiff: It says that todd blanche incorporates that testimony by reference, meaning that testimony before the senate, meaning when he answered mike kelly from texas' question he couldn't -- my colleague from texas's questions about binding. He was not speaking for the parties in this unsigned statement that only says that it's restating doj's interpretation is meaningless.
▶ 2:04:51Sen. Schiff: That interpretation is that the order only has any effect, including on any release of claims on the named parties in the lawsuit referenced in the order. But let's look at the named parties in this.
▶ 2:05:05Sen. Schiff: The named parties in this settlement agreement which the attorney general admitted remains in force applies to the plaintiffs, meaning trump, his sons, and the trump organization's, or affiliated individuals without limitation family,s parties including trusts, parents, subsidiaries by reason of, respect to,
▶ 2:05:40Sen. Schiff: Connection with that arise out of matters, raised or could have been raised. This is so broad. Nothing in this supposed clarification changes that. If tomorrow the president wants to insist -- let's say that tomorrow the irs were to audit the returns of a subsidiary of one of the companies. Not a party to the actual litigation.
▶ 2:06:05Sen. Schiff: Do you think for a moment the president would not assert that settlement agreement as a defense? Do you think a court would find that an unsigned statement purporting to restate some testimony in committee would bar the president from using that as a defense? So, we have this litigation. The president settles with the president.
▶ 2:06:34Sen. Schiff: The president never asserts the statute of limitations that would bar the claim. No. This is used to enrich the president's family. We should not confirm an attorney general who views his job is enriching the president of the united states. Number two, we should not confirm attorney general who believes he has a right and a duty to go after his political enemies.
▶ 2:07:00Sen. Schiff: Look, I understand my colleagues are upset there are records were subpoenaed, but I did not hear of any complaint of vital records were subpoenaed during the first jump administration. But let's set that aside. Do any of you think that is equivalent to the justice department under todd blanche seeking to indict two of our colleagues for a video they made that stated the plain truth that you can ignore in illegal order?
▶ 2:07:30Sen. Schiff: You have a duty to. How can any of his countenance but attorney general who would do such a thing. As my colleague says, brings a seashell's case. How absurd is that? Can there be any doubt that was brought simply because he's on the president's enemies list? I'm on that list. The president reiterated just the other night that he hates me, which I can tell you wound me deeply.
▶ 2:08:02Sen. Schiff: He's entitled to his own views about me or anybody else. He is not entitled to use the department of justice to go after his political opponents. The day say that's ok and the day we confirm an attorney general who says that's ok is the day the rule of law becomes merely an unenforceable idea. A quaint acknowledgment of the past justice department in which the rule of law once mattered.
▶ 2:08:33Sen. Schiff: We should not confirmed an attorney general who believes the president has a right and a duty to use him to go after his enemies. Number three of the reasons why we should not confirm todd blanche is that his efforts to protect the president and others in the epstein files investigation is a scandalous abuse of power.
▶ 2:09:00Sen. Schiff: He withheld documents implicating the president, to protect the president. He's never been able to shed his role as criminal defense lawyer for donald trump. He withheld records, only complied partially with the requirement of the law that he disclose them when he was found out in that effort of cover-up and concealment.
▶ 2:09:25Sen. Schiff: What's more, his management of the release of the files has victimized the victims again by publishing their names, their likenesses, their photos, their addresses. We should not confirm anyone so incompetent, someone so indifferent to the suffering of these victims, someone who only met with them because he was going to be refused confirmation for his refusal to do so.
▶ 2:09:55Sen. Schiff: Someone who met with the prime co-conspirator of epstein, ghislaine maxwell, and sought exculpatory statements from her and brought no one of any experience with the case. Who would do that as an experienced prosecutor? Interview someone in custody at a high profile case without bringing anyone who worked on that case who could tell them the questions to ask?
▶ 2:10:24Sen. Schiff: Who could tell them when they lied as this witness has a history of doing? And then, transfers her and gives us a false explanation here in the senate that he did so to protect her from threats. Such a person should not be confirmed as attorney general. Number four. He has sought to compensate cop beaters with taxpayer funds.
▶ 2:10:53Sen. Schiff: I have to say again, nothing in this signed document of the attorney general, nothing stops the president from doing it. The president has told us he fully intends to do this. Indeed they are already paying off the president's. Remember michael flynn? The erstwhile national security advisor. He's been paid $1.25 million of your taxpayer money. This is a guy who pled guilty twice.
▶ 2:11:25Sen. Schiff: Pled guilty twice to lying to the fbi about his contacts with the russians and he's already made $1.25 million off your money. Not using this weaponization slush fund but using the doj's victim fund is a slush fund.
▶ 2:11:47Sen. Schiff: And these cop beaters are already signaling their intention to file claims so even if the weaponization fund does not move forward, they are using the same mechanism to pay off these cop beaters and cronies of the president. Nothing in what todd blanche signed is going to stop that.
▶ 2:12:08Sen. Schiff: What will stop that is a statute passed by this committee, congress that prevents this -- and the congress that prevents this taxpayer funding going to these cop beaters. That is the only thing that will prevent it and we have not done it. Number five. This is an attorney general who violated the code of ethics. That may seem like a small thing given all the other violations but it ought to matter to us.
▶ 2:12:36Sen. Schiff: He violated in this irs slush fund tax settlement cases that the judge in florida found in suspects and referred him to the bar association for his conduct and that collusive settlement. More than that.
▶ 2:12:58Sen. Schiff: I asked about comments he made a cpac bragging about how there was not a single person left standing in the justice department or the fbi who had anything to do with the cases against donald trump and how he was applauding cpac for that.
▶ 2:13:26Sen. Schiff: That told you you must recuse yourself of involvement in any case in which you defended donald trump. How is that consistent? His answer was, oh, I was just saying those things to cpac. Here's the thing. He did fire people involved in the cases against donald trump. In fact, the testimony of one of the people he fired, and here is his termination notice.
▶ 2:14:02Sen. Schiff: This is todd blanche's signature on a notice of removal from federal service for peter carr. Peter carr was one of the primary spokesperson in jackson's investigation and the president prosecution for inciting a violent attack on the capitol.
▶ 2:14:23Sen. Schiff: Todd blanche writes, "this is a visual notice you are moved from your position of public affairs specialist with the department of justice." signed by todd blanche, recuse from any involvement in firing anyone with the cases in which he defended the president firing someone involved in the cases in which he defended the president.
▶ 2:14:57Sen. Schiff: So this is someone who has violated his code of ethics blatantly. Misled this committee. Supported the establishment of a fund for cop beaters. Concealed and covered up documents implicating the president and the epstein files. Gone after the president's enemies and used the doj to enrich the president and a collusive settlement.
▶ 2:15:25Sen. Schiff: Is this who are is this who a we are prepared to confirm as attorney general? It appears so. The fundamental problem with todd blanche is not that he's inexperienced he's not capable or not intelligent. The problem with confirming todd blanche is that he has never been able to shed his role as criminal defense lawyer for donald trump. He just can't do it.
▶ 2:15:56Sen. Schiff: He doesn't represent the american people now. He will never represent the american people. He will never do what is best for the american people. He will only do what is best for donald trump. And you cannot leave someone like that as the nation's number one law enforcement official, not when you have a corrupt president engaged in the most unprecedented, self enriching schemes we have ever seen.
▶ 2:16:24Sen. Schiff: You just can't do it and hope to have anything left of the rule of law. I urge a no vote on this confirmation and I yield back.
▶ 2:16:33Chair Grassley: We turn to the nomination of todd blanche to be attorney general. The clerk will call the roll. >> [calling roll]
▶ 2:17:19Chair Grassley: The nomination will be favorably reported. I have some letters I want to put in the record from -- well, I will not bother reading it. It is not worth reading at this point. The meeting is adjourned.