Senate Judiciary Committee Opens Confirmation Hearing for Todd Blanche as Attorney General

The Senate Judiciary Committee opened Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing on July 15, 2026, to consider his nomination as attorney general. Blanche has served as acting attorney general since early April 2025. President Trump nominated him in June 2025 after firing Pam Bondi.

Blanche previously worked as President Trump's personal defense lawyer and sat beside him during the Manhattan criminal trial that ended in a conviction for falsifying business records. Trump first selected Blanche in November 2024 to serve as deputy attorney general.

Under Blanche's leadership, the Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center for alleged donor fraud and announced charges in May 2026 against 15 defendants in Minnesota over schemes that targeted more than $90 million in public funds.

Blanche handled the Justice Department's January press conference on releasing millions of pages of Epstein files and interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell. The department later issued a July memo stating its internal review found no client list. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said on June 24 that "Mr.

President Trump posted on Truth Social ahead of the hearing that Blanche brought murder rates to historic lows, increased violent crime arrests by 100 percent, and oversaw the seizure of more than 500 million deadly doses of drugs. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have signaled they will question Blanche on the Comey case, the rejected settlement, and the department's handling of Epstein materials.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed by Congress in November 2025.

In a January 30 announcement, the Justice Department said it had published nearly 3.5 million pages responsive to the act, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images after reviewing roughly six million pages. Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled in late June that Todd Blanche had "conceded" violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act. On July 9, Rep.