Blanche Confirmation Hearing, Iran War And Midterm Politics, Clayton ODNI Hearing

Todd Blanche, President Trump’s nominee for attorney general, is not a lawyer who can’t stop saying “I’m his lawyer” under oath. That slip of the tongue came during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, and it captured a hearing that was less about Blanche’s résumé and more about whether he answers to the president or the Constitution.

Blanche has served as deputy attorney general since last year and took over the top job in April after Trump fired Pam Bondi. He now needs Senate confirmation to stay. The hearing was a review of a Justice Department that has been at the center of nearly nonstop controversy: prosecutions against Trump’s political opponents, the botched release of files about Jeffrey Epstein, and a nearly $2 billion slush fund the administration tried to set up to compensate people who stormed the Capitol on January 6. Blanche defended his record by saying DOJ has focused on violent crime and public safety. But Democrats on the panel, several of whom were former prosecutors themselves, pressed hard. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a former U.S. attorney, said the department has lost standing with judges and juries. “Between judges appointed by every president harshly criticizing the department's work in your tenure, grand juries rejecting indictments, judicial findings of outright misconduct. This seems to be the