Black leaders are forcefully expressing opposition to the U.S. Senate confirmation of Todd Blanche for U.S. Attorney General. The current acting AG faced tough questions from Senators as he sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Critics of Blanche say that, as Deputy U.S. Attorney General and later acting AG, Blanche–who served as Donald Trump’s personal attorney for years–has abused the law enforcement powers of the U.S. Department of Justice to protect the president and his interests. Those actions include seeking prosecutions against Trump’s perceived political enemies–most of which have failed in courts–and the unusual handling of FBI files related to Trump’s former friend and sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
“Todd Blanche has used his position to carry out the personal and political bidding of the president, at the literal expense of the American people. From supporting Trump’s unlawful $1.8 billion slush fund to covering up the Epstein Files, he is unqualified and cannot be trusted to prioritize or protect us,” said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. “We’re at a pivotal point in our nation, where we face attack from every angle, and we must stand against unprincipled, so-called leaders who are personally loyal to a corrupt president.”
Johnson urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to “make the right decision to preserve our democracy and our freedom” by rejecting Blanche’s nomination. The civil rights leader said the role of Attorney General should be to “prioritize the rights of Americans and uphold the U.S. Constitution, not attack this country’s most vulnerable communities.”
During Wednesday’s confirmation hearing, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) challenged Blanche on his record of seemingly prioritizing President Trump’s transgressions rather than fairly upholding the law.
“The attorney general’s client isn’t the president, it’s the American people. You’ve been protecting one man for most of your career, for years and years and years. He has demonstrated himself to put undue pressure—this is why he was impeached. This is why he was criminally indicted,” said Booker, who took Blanche to task on a host of issues, including the handling of the Epstein files release, concerns of “impropriety” with the DOJ’s approval of Paramount’s $110 billion Warner Bros Discovery, and the botched arrest of Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey.
“If your record and your testimony today should show us anything, it should show, in my opinion, that you should not be confirmed to this job,” said Booker.
U.S. Congresswoman LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), who is facing criminal charges by the Trump administration connected to Mayor Baraka’s arrest–which was thrown out and ruled illegal by a federal judge–also spoke out against Blanche’s confirmation.
“Let’s not forget who Todd Blanche is. Just over a year ago at Delaney Hall: ‘We are arresting the mayor right now, per the deputy attorney general of the U.S. Anyone that gets in our way, I need you guys to give me a perimeter so I can cuff him.’ Today, that same deputy attorney general is asking to become attorney general,” McIver wrote in a social media post.
On May 9, 2015, Baraka, McIver and U.S. Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, were met with ICE and other federal police officers as they attempted to conduct an oversight of Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center that was accused of violating the human rights of detainees. As officers tried to arrest Baraka, at the approval of then Acting AG Blanche, Congresswoman McIver intervened. The encounter led to the Trump administration charging McIver for forcible impeding and interfering with federal officers, charges she and others say are unjust and meant to intimidate her and other members of Congress from doing their jobs as a check and balance on the Trump White House.
McIver, who is pregnant, faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted.
The freshman New Jersey congresswoman attended Blanche’s hearing Wednesday morning, writing on social media, “I’ve been in the room since the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing began this morning, watching Acting AG Blanche dodge questions and spew lies. One thing is clear: if he’s confirmed, he would keep using the DOJ to serve his own interests and protect his friends, not Americans.”
Following the hearing, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) rebuked Blanche for “proudly” admitting during testimony that he was Trump’s personal attorney.
“When you become the U.S. attorney, when you walk into a courtroom, whether you are the U.S. attorney or if you are an assistant, you walk in and you either say the government is ready to proceed, or you say the people, or you say the United States. You don’t say Donald Trump versus, and so therefore we need somebody that is going to stand up for the people in this country,” Crockett told reporters on Capitol Hill.
For those reasons, she stressed, “The Senate must not confirm Todd Blanche.”
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a social media post that Blanche is “deeply unfit” to be the nation’s top law enforcement official.
“Todd Blanche is Donald Trump’s personal attorney who: 1. Created the corrupt $1.8 billion slush fund. 2. Weaponized the Department of Justice to persecute Americans. 3. Presided over a massive cover-up. He is deeply unfit to serve as Attorney General. Reject him,” wrote Jeffries.
