Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche took responsibility Wednesday for errors that released victims’ names in the Epstein files, but he defended the Justice Department’s response as a good effort given the thorny issue and the short time frame.
Mr. Blanche, testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee as he seeks to become the permanent attorney general, said the anti-weaponization fund President Trump established as a settlement for his lawsuit against the IRS was abandoned under bipartisan pressure, has not made any payouts and will not make any in the future.
The acting attorney general did say he supported the prosecutions of people in the Jan. 6, 2021, mob intrusion at the Capitol who assaulted police officers, but added that it was Mr. Trump’s decision, and prerogative under the Constitution, to pardon them.
He broke somewhat with Mr. Trump, who has teased a potential 2028 reelection bid. Mr. Blanche said he does not think the president is eligible to serve another term.
“I don’t believe he is,” Mr. Blanche told senators.
Mr. Blanche, who was confirmed in March to be deputy attorney general on a 52-46 vote, did not win over any Democrats and may have alienated support on his right flank.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, lost the May 26 Republican primary runoff to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Paxton shortly before the runoff vote. Mr. Cornyn prodded the nominee on several fronts.
He questioned the administration’s legal strategy of battling in court to preserve a Biden-era rule allowing the abortion pill to be distributed by mail, and questioned Mr. Blanche about the weaponization fund.
Regarding the weaponization fund, Mr. Blanche reaffirmed his view that the idea is dead and committed, under oath, not to make any payouts from the $1.776 billion fund Mr. Trump sought.
He brushed aside senators’ demands to revoke the settlement as part of the lawsuit. Instead, he suggested that Congress pass legislation to ban the fund in federal law.
More than 1,500 people were charged in connection with the mob intrusion at the Capitol, and 1,270 had been convicted and sentenced before Mr. Trump issued a blanket pardon, shutting down the cases and freeing those still behind bars.
Several hundred of the defendants were charged with assaulting police, and hundreds more with obstructing or interfering with officers.
Mr. Blanche said the pardon was Mr. Trump’s decision, and he declined to criticize the president for exercising his constitutional power.
Still, he said, police who were assaulted were victims of crime, and any perpetrator deserved to be convicted.
“Yes, and should have been prosecuted — and was,” Mr. Blanche said.
Questions about deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were frequent. Democrats said Mr. Blanche was the point man in the Justice Department’s effort to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the release of all the files, with redactions limited to victims.
Some identifying information still made it in, and Mr. Blanche took the blame.
“I take responsibility,” he said.
Nearly 3 million pages of the Epstein files have been released in response to court orders and the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Mr. Blanche said the department collected 6 million pages to peruse, but much of that was beyond the scope of the Epstein investigation.
As an example, he said, another case involved a different Epstein in the same federal district at the time. All those documents were collected during the initial sweep, but were not relevant to the mass release.
Mr. Blanche said the department erred in redactions 1% of the time, and that errors were corrected as soon as they were brought to the department’s attention.
“For four years, there wasn’t a peep about Jeffrey Epstein. The Biden administration did nothing to be transparent about Jeffrey Epstein. We have been extraordinarily transparent,” Mr. Blanche said.
The five hours of testimony were relatively calm by the standards of other Trump Cabinet officials, including former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was combative in her testimony just before her ouster.
Mr. Blanche did accuse Democrats of lying about his record, and they, in turn, accused him of corruption, questioning his transition from Mr. Trump’s personal defense attorney to deputy attorney general and now acting head of the Justice Department.
“What happened to the Todd Blanche who was a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York?” said Sen. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat.
“I am still here. I am the same exact person I was when I was a federal prosecutor,” Mr. Blanche countered. He said his chief goal of putting bad guys behind bars remains the same.
Democrats said Mr. Blanche’s year as deputy attorney general and months as acting attorney general have deepened their concerns.
“You’ve chosen Trump over truth. You’ve chosen corporations over the Constitution,” said Sen. Cory Booker, New Jersey Democrat. “This is why your nomination should fail. The attorney general’s client is not the president, it’s the American people.”
Mr. Blanche bristled at complaints that he has not shown independence. He said his job puts him in two camps, including serving at Mr. Trump’s pleasure and carrying out his priorities.
“My obligation is to the American people and the rule of law. That being said, I am a member of the Cabinet of the president of the United States,” he said.
During his testimony, Mr. Blanche:
• Gave his imprimatur to FBI Director Kash Patel in response to challenges from Democrats who suggested he has tanked morale at the bureau and has a problem with alcohol.
“I don’t think he has any issues with drinking. He has no issues with morale,” Mr. Blanche said.
• Signaled that former special counsel Jack Smith could face investigation over allegations of lying to Congress. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, and Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee, alleged Mr. Smith lied to Congress. Mr. Smith claimed last year that the Arctic Frost investigation against Mr. Trump did not seek the contents of members of Congress’ text messages, but according to Messrs. Grassley and Johnson, the probe did in fact collect those contents and broke protocols to do so.
• Said Americans are safer now than they were 18 months ago, before Mr. Trump took office, pointing to increases in arrests for violent crime and a new focus on illegal immigrants and smuggling cartels.
• Acknowledged personally signing off on subpoenas for New York Times reporters seeking the source of leaks of classified information. He said the reporters are not targets but rather “material witnesses” who should reveal who provided them with the information.
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