Todd Blanche faces Senate scrutiny over Epstein files and DOJ fund

Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department, faces a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday centered on records tied to Jeffrey Epstein, a canceled $1.8 billion DOJ fund and prosecutions of figures Trump has criticized. Blanche, 51, has been acting attorney general since early April, after Trump dismissed Pam Bondi over her handling of Justice Department matters involving Epstein, according to CNBC.

Blanche became nationally known as a criminal defense lawyer for Trump before joining the administration. Trump urged Senate Republicans to confirm him in a Truth Social post Tuesday, describing Blanche as a “great lawyer, always very fair,” and saying every Republican senator should vote for confirmation “ASAP.”

Democrats, who hold the minority on the Judiciary Committee, are expected to focus on Blanche’s role in decisions over the public release of Epstein-related files. Congress passed a law in November requiring the Justice Department to release all documents it holds concerning Epstein.

According to CNBC, Blanche, while serving as deputy attorney general in January, initially released more than 3 million pages connected to Epstein but did not make public millions of additional pages. The Justice Department said in a Jan. 30 statement that withheld materials included duplicate records from separate investigations and documents protected by certain legal privileges.

A group of Epstein victims released a video this week urging senators to reject Blanche’s nomination. The group said personal information that should have been redacted was disclosed by the Justice Department when files were released, CNBC reported.

Questions over canceled DOJ fund

Blanche is also expected to face questioning over a proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund at the Justice Department. The fund was designed to compensate people said to have been harmed by prosecutorial overreach by the department, according to CNBC.

The proposal was part of an out-of-court settlement in Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax records. Blanche has said he canceled the fund after criticism from Republican senators and Democrats, although Trump has raised the possibility of reviving it.

The settlement gave Trump, members of his family and related business entities effective immunity from IRS audits, prosecution or regulatory enforcement for tax returns filed up to the May settlement date, according to CNBC.

On Monday, a federal judge in Miami said Trump had sued the IRS for an “improper purpose,” describing the case as an effort to obtain the appearance of judicial approval for a settlement that had no viable legal or factual basis. The judge ordered that her ruling be sent to the New York State Bar Association, where Blanche is a member and where an ethics complaint against him is pending.

A Justice Department spokesperson told CNBC there was “no collusion” in the case and said the judge had ignored decades of precedent. The spokesperson said the plaintiffs received no money and were barred from receiving any funds from the defunct program.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s ranking Democrat, told reporters Tuesday that Blanche acknowledged in a private meeting that creating the fund had been a mistake and said he did not want it to proceed. Durbin said Blanche also expressed willingness to work with Congress on legislation preventing the fund’s creation. CNBC said it requested Justice Department comment on Durbin’s account.

Prosecutions of Trump critics

Democrats are also expected to press Blanche on federal cases involving former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both were prosecuted last fall by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which operates under Justice Department oversight.

Both defendants strongly denied the allegations. A judge dismissed the cases in November after ruling that the interim U.S. attorney who brought them had been invalidly appointed, CNBC reported.

Comey was indicted again in April in federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The indictment alleged that he threatened to kill Trump by posting an Instagram image of seashells arranged to read “86 47.”

A Justice Department spokesperson told CNBC that James and Comey were charged by federal grand juries with serious felony offenses and said people cannot be exempt from charges because of who they are.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.