Senate Judiciary Committee schedules July 15-16 hearing for attorney general nominee Todd Blanche

The Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing for July 15 and 16. Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley confirmed the dates Tuesday after meeting with Blanche and receiving his nomination paperwork late last week.

Grassley told reporters the committee received the papers the previous night. He said the panel plans a two-day hearing, with Blanche testifying on the first day and an expert witness panel on July 16. Blanche has served as acting attorney general since former Attorney General Pam Bondi resigned earlier this year.

President Trump formally nominated him to the permanent post earlier this month. Blanche spent Tuesday meeting privately with senators, including Republicans viewed as possible skeptics. Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, both Judiciary Committee members, have not yet publicly committed to supporting the nomination.

Tillis said he plans to meet with Blanche next week and is still vetting him. “No, I’m meeting with him next week, and we’re just going through the vetting process right now. I haven’t seen anything that, from a January 6 perspective, that would be a problem,” Tillis told reporters.

8 billion anti-weaponization fund proposal will remain an issue if it is not effectively dead by the confirmation hearing. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Blanche assured her the proposal would not move forward.

“We had an extensive discussion on the anti-weaponization fund, which he has assured me with no equivocation at all that he is not for it, will not pursue it, will not exist,” Collins said. Grassley noted that Blanche previously cleared the Senate as deputy attorney general and received all the votes.

In his Senate questionnaire, Blanche stated he left his law firm in 2023 primarily to represent President Trump in the Manhattan hush money case involving Stormy Daniels.

He also represented Trump in prosecutions brought by former special counsel Jack Smith and advised him in additional investigations and civil matters between 2023 and 2025. Following the meeting, Grassley released a statement praising Blanche and signaling support for moving the nomination process ahead quickly.