President Donald Trump’s nominee to become second-in-command at the Justice Department sidestepped questions at a confirmation hearing Wednesday from Democrats who sought to pin down his thoughts on a series of shakeups at the department.
Todd Blanche’s nomination to become deputy attorney general, a position known for running the day-to-day operations of the department, is one in a string of examples of Trump looking to install allies to top positions at the Justice Department.
Blanche, who represented Trump in multiple criminal cases, largely avoided answers at the Senate Judiciary Committee that would put him at odds with the personnel moves from the Trump administration.
Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, said nonpolitical career officials in the department’s Criminal Division, National Security Division and elsewhere have been “demoted or reassigned” to areas outside their expertise in recent weeks.
“Will you reverse these moves and return these expert prosecutors to their areas of expertise if confirmed?” Hirono asked.
“I’m not going to commit to any decision that will be made before consulting with the folks that are there already,” Blanche responded.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the panel, said Blanche’s nomination deserves heightened scrutiny because of what Durbin said was the political retribution already on display within the Justice Department in the new Trump administration.
The Illinois Democrat pressed Blanche on whether he would stop any effort to disclose information that might jeopardize the safety of FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigations.
The senator was touching on concerns from FBI personnel that their names might be disclosed publicly after officials were asked to fill out a survey asking about their role in the Jan. 6 investigations and prosecutions.
Blanche said he was not aware of an effort by the department to disclose the names of FBI agents who investigated the attack. He also said the safety of FBI agents is “extraordinarily important.”
“I cannot sit here today and commit to anything … beyond that statement, that we will never do anything to put the lives of the family or the agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in danger,” Blanche said.
At another point during the hearing, Blanche declined to weigh in and specify whether the Trump administration broke the law in firing a slate of inspectors general.
During a discussion about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Blanche told a Republican senator that people who commit violence against a police officer should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
But he also said the power of the pardon rests with the president. Trump, hours after being sworn in, pardoned nearly all the rioters charged in connection to the 2021 attack.
Blanche during the hearing touched on his experience as a federal prosecutor and pledged to combat gangs and terrorists if confirmed.
He did not shy from his connections to Trump and criticized criminal cases against the president, which have been dismissed because he is now in office again.
“I have stood next to and defended President Trump as partisan prosecutors and politicians abused our legal system in completely unprecedented ways to fulfill a political agenda, which was prosecuting and attacking President Trump,” Blanche said.
Blanche was on Trump’s defense team in the New York state criminal case in which Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts.
Blanche also was counsel to Trump in two federal criminal cases against the president, one in Washington tied to Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and another in Florida related to Trump’s handling of classified documents after his first term.
Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, framed Blanche as a lawyer with a history of nonpolitical service and indicated that Blanche’s experience representing Trump in criminal probes was a positive for his ascension to the high-ranking Justice Department post.
“Your very strong background in criminal litigation, coupled with your firsthand view of a weaponized legal system, makes you the perfect choice. If anything, your exposure to Jack Smith’s lawfare will serve as an example of what not to do,” Grassley said.
The post Senators question Todd Blanche for top Justice Department role appeared first on Roll Call.
