Several witnesses will testify on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about whether Todd Blanche should be confirmed as US attorney general.
Blanche fielded hours of questions from the Senate panel yesterday, acknowledging there were some errors in the department’s vetting of the Epstein files, but defending his handling of the case. He also called Trump’s US Capitol riot pardons “generous.”
Blanche’s path in the committee is razor thin, as just one Republican no vote could derail his nomination.
The acting attorney general had to tread carefully before the panel – reassuring Republicans that he would keep up his aggressive approach at the Justice Department, while also signaling that President Donald Trump won’t be able to interfere politically.
Yet some Republicans still said Wednesday that they hadn’t reached a final decision.
The fate of Blanche’s nomination hinges on two Republican senators with nothing to lose: Texas’ John Cornyn and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis. Cornyn recently lost the Republican primary in his state to a Trump-backed rival, while Tillis announced last year that he would not seek reelection.
If either lawmaker votes against Blanche’s nomination in the committee, it would effectively kill it.
Both senators have been among the sharpest Republican critics of the Justice Department’s earlier proposal of a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which Blanche has said is “dead.”
Cornyn told CNN on Tuesday that his concerns are far from alleviated, while Tillis said that he’s “leaning yes” on Blanche.
For Thursday’s hearing, Republicans will put forth former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who served under President George W. Bush; Jon Adler, the president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation; and Jennifer Bos, the mother of an Illinois woman whose body was allegedly abused by an undocumented person.
Democrats on the committee will call Elizabeth Oyer, who had served as a career pardon lawyer at DOJ before being fired by Blanche last year. Oyer, who sued over her ousting, claimed she was terminated because she refused to bow to pressure from Trump appointees who wanted her to restore the gun rights of actor Mel Gibson, which he lost after a 2011 state domestic violence conviction.
Committee Democrats are also calling Dani Bensky, a Jeffrey Epstein survivor, as a witness.
The committee will likely hold a vote on the nomination later this month.
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