Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general and President Trump's former personal lawyer, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday at 9 a.m. Eastern for a confirmation hearing likely to be dominated by the $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund he approved, the Justice Department's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the pending criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey.
The hearing is the first major nomination fight since the death Saturday of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and it opens with a slimmer Republican majority on the panel. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee told Fox News Digital that Chairman Chuck Grassley and his colleagues are working to seat Graham's sister, Darline Graham Nordone, on the committee before it votes on Blanche's nomination next week.
The IRS deal
The hearing lands two days after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami voided the $1.8 billion settlement that ended Trump's $10 billion civil suit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns by a former government contractor. As part of that deal, Blanche signed an order granting Trump, his older sons and his companies immunity from future tax claims arising out of "lawfare and/or weaponization." Williams accused the Justice Department of "abdicating its responsibility to zealously defend the interests of the United States" and directed a copy of her order to the State Bar of New York, where Blanche is a member.
Blanche told House members in June that the Justice Department was "not moving forward" with the fund but declined to put that commitment in writing. The department later rebuffed Williams's request that Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sign a sworn declaration attesting to the fund's status.
Republican skeptics
Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas are expected to press Blanche hardest among Republicans. Tillis is not seeking re-election; Cornyn lost his Texas Senate primary runoff to state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who carried Trump's endorsement.
"If we're able to get through the 1776 and get-out-of-audit-free card, then I'm going to support him," Tillis told reporters Tuesday, referring to the fund and the IRS settlement. "I feel like unless something comes up that I could point to that would rationally make me rethink my position, I'm going into the hearings with a lean yes."
The Epstein files
Senators also plan to press Blanche on the department's release of records tied to Jeffrey Epstein, which contained redactions that publicly identified victims while concealing the names of other figures associated with him. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi told the House Oversight and Reform Committee in May that Blanche was "in charge" of the release. Blanche interviewed longtime Epstein companion Ghislaine Maxwell in prison last year about the case; Maxwell was later transferred from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Texas, a move outside experts called unprecedented. Several Epstein survivors released a video and put up billboards this week urging senators to reject the nomination.
The counterpoint
Twenty conservative legal figures, including Article III Project founder Mike Davis and America First Legal Executive Director Gene Hamilton, sent a letter to Grassley urging swift confirmation. "Blanche already knows the job. He already knows the department. He is already executing the Trump agenda," the letter read. Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday that Blanche "stood by my side and fought off the Lawfare" during the Manhattan hush-money prosecution.
Opposition from Democrats and former career staff is more sustained. More than 1,200 Justice Department alumni organized as Justice Connection signed a letter this month urging the committee to vote no, saying Blanche had fired or overseen the firings of hundreds of employees "for improper, unlawful reasons." Blanche dismissed the signatories in an interview with Alaska's News Source, saying many "worked with [former special counsel] Jack Smith." Sen. Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, said Tuesday that Blanche's "actions speak much louder than whatever he says in the hearing."
What comes next
Grassley has scheduled a committee vote on Blanche next week. Whether Graham Nordone takes her late brother's Judiciary seat before that vote could determine how narrow the Republican margin is when the nomination moves to the floor.