Watch Live: Blanche testifies at confirmation hearing for attorney general

Without naming President Trump, Tillis also called out "leadership" in the government for repeating the "heinous mistakes that the Biden administration did" in the Justice Department.

"What I've seen happening here is when we have a bad action of one administration, I'll be damned if we don't repeat it with the other one," Tillis said in a lengthy monologue at the top of his time allotment. "I want leadership that says, we're going to ratchet things down and not make the heinous mistakes that the Biden administration did. Let's be better than them, not better at prosecuting people that maybe we shouldn't or take a little bit more time before we indict them."

"Let's set an example and stop this spiraling," Tillis continued, warning his colleagues that "if a Democrat president comes in, they're going to up the ante and they're going to go right after the behavior of this administration as an example of why they should, because this administration has done the same thing to justify their some of their behavior."

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, is another Republican whose vote will be key for Blanche to secure. At the start of his time, Tillis said some of the people who were charged for actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault should not have been prosecuted.

"Hundreds or thousands of people's lives were destroyed because they did something stupid that day, and there's a vast difference between doing something stupid and doing something that destroys your career and ruins you financially," he said.

Tillis said the Biden administration "tapped on the emotions of the time to over-prosecute and weaponize the DOJ and went after people that I believe deserved a pardon." But he drew distinction between those who attacked law enforcement and ransacked the Capitol building. 

Tillis asked Blanche whether he believes any Capitol Police officer was the victim of a "heinous crime."

"Yes, and they should've been prosecuted, and they were," Blanche said.

Tillis then pressed Blanche on the $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund and suggested Congress draft and pass legislation that specifies the program is ended.

"The Department of Justice and the White House has worked with you and your colleagues to come up with language. We do not object to that path or or including it in some other [bill]," Blanche said.

Tillis ended his round of questioning by telling Blanche he "did a great job."

During an exchange with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, Blanche apologized to survivors of Epstein's crimes for the Justice Department mistakenly publishing records that contained their personal information.

"I will absolutely say that any mistake that we made should not have been made. And I very much apologize," Blanche said.

The acting attorney general reiterated that a small percentage of documents were erroneously made public.

"What I will say on top of that is we put tons of resources to rectifying those mistakes immediately, including pulling down documents within minutes of being informed that there were mistakes, potential mistakes made, and working 24/7 to rectify any mistakes," he said. "And that's what I would expect the victims would want us to do, and their counsel and this body as well."

Blanche said he can meet with survivors but also encouraged those with evidence to meet with the FBI or other law enforcement agencies.

"We will do everything we can to prosecute if we can," he said.

Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, asked Blanche why the Justice Department has not made public, or disclosed with redactions, an opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel laying out the administration's legal justification for strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. There have been more than 60 attacks on boats that have killed more than 200 people.

The Trump administration has accused the individuals on the boats of smuggling drugs.

Blanche said the Justice Department made the head of its Office of Legal Counsel available and rejected the suggestion that the Trump administration has not been forthcoming about the legal basis for the attacks.

"That is extraordinarily transparent and unprecedented, that we've done that," he said. "Whether an OLC opinion is released, there's a lot of process that goes into that. But the idea that we were not transparent about our legal basis there is absolutely not true."

Coons also pressed Blanche on the status of the "anti-weaponization" fund and why he hadn't committed to writing his pledge that the program is dead.

"I'm under oath today and I've said it's dead repeatedly," Blanche said. "I'm happy to say it as many times as necessary."

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island raised Monday's decision from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams that excoriated Mr. Trump, his lawyers and the Justice Department for their handling of the president's civil lawsuit against the IRS.

Whitehouse also asked Blanche to turn over any communications between the Justice Department and the president in the case.

"I'm not aware of any communications. I didn't have any, so if you put a request in, we'll look at it," he said, adding that there is "active continued litigation" in South Florida. 

Blanche said there are "indications" that the parties in the case, which includes Mr. Trump and his sons, intend to appeal Williams' order.

Whitehouse also asked Blanche "how long do you intend to put up with" FBI Director Kash Patel, citing allegations of misuse of government jets, drinking at work and perjury that Democrats have repeatedly raised.

"That's an extraordinarily obnoxious question, senator," Blanche responded, adding he has "full faith" in Patel.

An exchange with GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana seemed to underscore concerns from Democrats and some Republicans about Blanche's previous role as the president's personal attorney.

Kennedy pursued a line of questioning that was aimed at allaying that criticism, highlighting the fact that previous presidents have installed close allies and even family members as attorney general.

"Are you and President Trump friends?" Kennedy asked.

"I'm his lawyer," Blanche said, before quickly adding, "Was his lawyer. And now I'm the deputy attorney general."

Blanche added: "So I met him as his criminal defense attorney. I'm not sure there's very many people who have ever had a criminal defense attorney who calls that person their friend."

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota pressed Blanche on why the federal government was "refusing to cooperate" with state law enforcement in Minnesota on investigations into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti earlier this year. She asked whether the federal government would cooperate with local authorities in Maine and Texas after recent fatal shootings by ICE agents there. 

"I expect that these investigations should be run as every investigation of similar kinds, and so that necessarily includes working with state and locals in the appropriate way," Blanche said. "I think that the definition of 'full cooperation' can be disputed. But I very much expect that whether it's the inspector general, or the U.S. Attorney's Office, or the FBI, or whoever on the federal side of the investigation, where appropriate, to work with state and locals."

On Monday, top prosecutors in Minnesota said that federal investigators started to share evidence in connection to the shootings in the state amid Operation Metro Surge earlier this year.

Cornyn, one of the GOP senators on the committee whose vote will be key to Blanche's confirmation, questioned him about the status of the $1.8 "anti-weaponization" fund and whether the written agreement reached with Mr. Trump and his lawyers had been modified to reflect the status of the program.

Blanche told Cornyn that there has been no written agreement between the parties — which includes Mr. Trump, his two older sons and the IRS — to change the settlement.

"The settlement fund is just not moving forward," he said. "There's no modification. It's just — it never started. No money went from the Treasury to any other account. There's no commissioners. It's not moving forward."

Still, Cornyn continued to press Blanche on whether Mr. Trump had agreed in writing to kill the "anti-weaponization" fund and questioned whether he or his sons could file a lawsuit arguing the terms of the settlement agreement had been breached.

"There's no fund," Blanche said. "So the results of such litigation … wouldn't be [a] revival of the fund."

The acting attorney general also said Mr. Trump's protections from IRS action would not extend to other agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pressed by Durbin on the immunity from tax audits or investigations granted to Mr. Trump as part of the deal to settle his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, Blanche said it is "typical" for such agreements to include a release from past audits.

"It's not an exemption to comply with the tax laws of the United States," he said.

Blanche said settlements like the one reached with the president are "done regularly" and "not unique to the Department of Justice or the IRS."

"It does not give any protection to the president, his family, or his organizations for any taxes they file. If they filed it the day after, the day of, that I signed that agreement, or the day after they have no protection," he said. 

Durbin pressed Blanche on whether he would meet with Epstein survivors within the next 30 days. The acting attorney general pledged to make a member of his staff available to meet with them, but he would not commit to personally doing so.

"I have never said I will not meet with survivors," Blanche said, adding that he is "prohibited from meeting directly with them."

"I think you ought to be in the room because you ought to hear this. You had singular responsibility for these files," Durbin said.

Blanche responded he is "definitely part of it" and has been "from day one."

"We remain available to meet with any victim or their representative at any time," Blanche continued, adding later that "if they're represented by council, I'm not allowed to meet with them directly, as you know."

Durbin then accused Blanche of "dancing on the head of a pin."

Fielding a question about the release of the Epstein files, Blanche acknowledged that the department inadvertently failed to redact certain survivors' names and information from the documents that were released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

"The reviewers were qualified, experienced attorneys within the department and the FBI. They took pains to apply appropriate redactions," Blanche said. "There were mistakes that were made, and so approximately 1% of the redactions had to be fixed after we released the Epstein files."

Blanche said the Justice Department had "dozens of lawyers on call 24/7" to review the huge trove of documents. 

"Whenever we learned that any victim's name had been improperly not redacted, we immediately took the document down and fixed it as soon as we could," he said. "That doesn't excuse the mistakes, of which I take responsibility, but it does mean that we tried to fix them. We complied with the act."

Grassley pressed Blanche about the ongoing litigation brought by the state of Louisiana that aims to restrict mail access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone.

Blanche praised Mr. Trump as "the most pro-life president in history" but declined to provide further details about the case, which is ongoing.

The acting attorney general said it would be "wrong" to discuss the Justice Department's litigation strategy beyond what has been conveyed through legal filings. Still, he said the Trump administration is "not in any way" defending the Biden administration's actions on mifepristone.

During the COVD-19 pandemic, the Biden administration made mifepristone easier to obtain when it suspended enforcement of an in-person dispensing requirement. The Food and Drug Administration then formally allowed the drug to be prescribed through telehealth and sent through the mail in 2023.

In his opening remarks, Blanche walked through what he said are the Justice Department's greatest successes in the first year of his tenure, and pledged to correct a department that "turned against" President Trump.

"Seventeen months ago, I sat at this table as the nominee to be the deputy attorney general, and I told you that serving in the Department of Justice was my American dream," Blanche said. "Since then, I have helped lead it first as deputy and now as acting attorney general, and I'm here today to earn your trust once more."

He touted the Trump administration's federal law enforcement surges in Washington, D.C., and Memphis, and the ongoing emphasis of bringing cases against alleged gang members and smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as the department's work on fraud takedowns. 

Blanche also said he is focused on "fixing" alleged weaponization of the Justice Department against Mr. Trump and his allies.

"Above all, we are restoring American trust. In recent years, we watched the Justice Department turned against many of you and a former president, and it damaged the public's faith in justice. We are fixing that," Blanche said. "Members of this committee on both sides have fair questions about the hard debates of the past year, and I welcome them."

In opening remarks, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, reiterated Democrats' concerns about the president's former personal lawyer leading the Justice Department and serving as the nation's top law enforcement officer.

Durbin noted that since Blanche was confirmed as deputy attorney general last year, the Justice Department has been accused of violating dozens of court orders to advance Mr. Trump's agenda. He criticized Blanche for numerous matters, including the $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund," the department's handling of the public disclosure of the Epstein files and his meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein's, last year, after which she was transferred to a minimum-security prison camp.

He asked Blanche to agree to meet with survivors of Epstein's crimes alongside Justice Department staff.

"They should at least hear from their government that they take it seriously," Durbin said.

The Illinois Democrat accused Blanche of "purging career law-enforcement officials who won't prioritize President Trump's interests over their oath to the Constitution," including the former pardon attorney and a longtime Justice Department lawyer who worked on immigration cases.

Turning to indictments brought against Mr. Trump's perceived political foes, Durbin said that Blanche has "shown you are still President Trump's personal attorney."

"This nation deserves an attorney general who loves the Constitution more than any single president. An attorney general focused on keeping America safe and combatting corruption, not satisfying the president's personal grievances or channeling crypto cash to the administration's MAGA faithful," he said.

In an opening statement to launch the hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who chairs the Judiciary Committee, praised the Justice Department in the second Trump administration for what he said is a "record of success" in tackling crime, curbing the spread of illegal drugs and combatting child exploitation.

Grassley also said the Justice Department has been "most responsive" to requests for records compared to prior presidential administrations.

"This department is keeping Americans safe, and the numbers back that up," Grassley said. "Mr. Blanche, you should take pride in delivering the law enforcement promise the American people voted for in 2024."

The Iowa Republican acknowledged that he does not agree with how Blanche and the Justice Department have handled every issue, but said criticism raised in recent days has "completely missed the mark."

The late Sen. Lindsey Graham's spot on the committee's dais has been draped in black with a bouquet of white roses following his unexpected death over the weekend:

Graham was a longtime member of the Judiciary Committee, and led the panel as its chairman between 2019 and 2021.

His desk in the Senate chamber was similarly shrouded in black with white flowers when the Senate reconvened this week.

• What: Todd Blanche testifies before Senate Judiciary Committee 
• Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2026
• Time: 9 a.m. ET
• Location: Capitol Hill
• Online stream: Live on CBS News 24/7

Several Republican senators have been critical of the Trump administration's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, which the Justice Department created as part of a deal with Mr. Trump to settle his $10 billion civil lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns by a former government contractor.

But Blanche is likely to face the sharpest questions from GOP Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas.

Tillis is not running for reelection and Cornyn lost his Senate primary runoff election to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who won Mr. Trump's endorsement.

Still, Tillis told reporters Tuesday that heading into Blanche's confirmation hearing, he is inclined to back his nomination.

"If we're able to get through the 1776 and get-out-of-audit-free card, then I'm going to support him," Tillis said, referring to the $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund and settlement of the president's case against the IRS. "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."

Republicans control the majority of seats on the Judiciary panel, but the GOP's margins shrank with the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Saturday night. 

While Graham's sister, Darline Graham, was appointed to serve the rest of the late senator's term, it's unclear whether she will fill his seats on the four committees on which Graham served, which include Judiciary.

Blanche himself predicted last week that he would field questions from senators about the "anti-weaponization" fund. The program was met with swift backlash from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle shortly after it was announced in May. Amid the fallout, Blanche told House members during a hearing last month that the Justice Department was "not moving forward" with the fund.

But he declined to put that commitment in writing, and the Justice Department rebuffed a federal judge's request for Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to sign a sworn declaration attesting to the status of the $1.8 billion fund.

Then, on Monday, a federal judge in Miami issued a scathing rebuke of Mr. Trump, his lawyers and the Justice Department over their conduct related to the president's civil lawsuit against the IRS and subsequent settlement. As part of that deal, Blanche signed an order effectively granting Mr. Trump, his older sons and his companies immunity from future tax claims and actions arising out of "lawfare and/or weaponization."

In citing the broad release order signed by Blanche, the judge, Kathleen Williams, questioned whether he violated ethical standards governing conflicts of interest and directed a copy of her order to be mailed to the State Bar of New York, of which Blanche is a member.

Williams also accused the Justice Department of "abdicating its responsibility to zealously defend the interests of the United States" and said that by entering into the settlement with Mr. Trump, the government "disregarded DOJ policies, and accomplished objectives beyond those authorized, as well as those specifically prohibited, by law."

Prior to Pam Bondi's departure from the Justice Department, Blanche served as deputy attorney general, where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of the department. He was deeply involved in the first wave of controversial charging decisions in line with President Trump's political priorities, the department's handling of the Epstein files and the mass firings and resignations of department employees.

In a letter earlier this month to the Senate Judiciary Committee, more than 1,200 former Justice Department employees with the group Justice Connection urged the committee to vote against Blanche's confirmation.

"Blanche has fired or overseen the firings of hundreds of these employees — usually without notice, and for improper, unlawful reasons," the letter says. "Some were terminated for having worked on cases the President didn't like; for being relatives of the President's foes; for adjudicating immigration cases in accordance with due process; for declining to initiate vindictive prosecutions; or for refusing to lie in court. These terminations violate the very civil service statutes designed to prevent corruption and political purges."

In response to the letter, Blanche criticized many of those who signed it for having "worked with [former special counsel] Jack Smith."

"The fact that there are a group of individuals out there that do not want me to be attorney general is OK with me," Blanche said in an interview with Alaska's News Source after the letter's publication. 

Blanche is also likely to face questions about federal prosecutions and investigations of former and current officials who the president often attacks — specifically former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former CIA Director John Brennan.

Brennan has been the focus of two Justice Department probes since Mr. Trump returned to the presidency for a second term.

Comey was indicted last year on two counts relating to congressional testimony he gave in September 2020, and James faced criminal charges of bank fraud and lying to a financial institution. Both indictments were sought by Lindsey Halligan, who served as a personal lawyer to Mr. Trump and went on to work in his White House last year. 

But the criminal cases against Comey and James were tossed out in November after a judge ruled that Halligan had been unlawfully appointed interim U.S. attorney. The Justice Department is appealing that decision.

Comey, however, was indicted again in April, this time for allegedly making threats against the president. The case stems from a photo Comey posted to Instagram last year, which showed seashells arranged in the sand to form the numbers "86 47."

Prosecutors claimed that a "reasonable recipient" would interpret the shells "as a serious expression of an intent to do harm" to Mr. Trump.

Comey has denied any wrongdoing and is set to be arraigned in September.

Blanche first worked at the Justice Department early in his legal career, serving as a paralegal while attending Brooklyn Law School, where he earned his law degree in 2003. He clerked for two federal judges in New York, and then was hired to work as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

From there, Blanche joined the law firm WilmerHale in New York, which is one of the four firms that Mr. Trump has targeted through executive orders.

Blanche then worked at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft until 2023, when he started his own firm, Blanche Law, and led the team defending Mr. Trump against 34 state felony charges in New York related to a "hush money" payment made to an adult film star in the final days of the 2016 election. The president was convicted on all counts in 2024 and has appealed his conviction.

Mr. Trump selected Blanche for deputy attorney general in his second administration, and he was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 52 to 46. Blanche took the helm of the Justice Department as acting attorney general following Bondi's removal in April.

In a Truth Social post Tuesday calling on all GOP senators to confirm his pick, Mr. Trump called Blanche "a great lawyer" and "always very fair."

"When the Corrupt Biden 'Injustice' Department and Radical Left Prosecutors tried to throw me in jail, and interfered in our Historic 2024 Presidential Campaign, Todd stood by my side and fought off the Lawfare," Mr. Trump added.