Durbin Enters Statement On Trump Nominating Todd Blanche To Be Attorney General Into Congressional Record

June 09, 2026 Durbin Enters Statement On Trump Nominating Todd Blanche To Be Attorney General Into Congressional Record WASHINGTON – In a statement entered into the Congressional Record, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, discussed President Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche to serve as the next U.S. Attorney General. “When Blanche was under consideration to be Deputy Attorney General, the number two position at the Justice Department, I reminded him of the importance of DOJ maintaining its independence from the President and the pull of politics. Regrettably, over the past year, he has disregarded that call and erased that line—placing loyalty to President Trump above all else and damaging the independence and credibility of the Department in ways that will have ramifications for decades. It appears that blind loyalty has paid off for Blanche—which is exactly how President Trump incentivizes his appointees to throw away their integrity,” said Durbin. “During his brief audition as Acting Attorney General, Blanche took the weaponization of the Department to new extremes. He presided over the creation of a $1.8 billion slush fund that would funnel money to allies of the President, including January 6 insurrectionists who beat up cops, in a purported legal settlement between the President and the government he runs. It gets worse. As part of that settlement, the IRS is permanently barred from auditing past tax returns of President Trump, his family, and related companies. Let me state this another way. The President of the United States sued the government he runs in order to get his lackey to give away taxpayer dollars to the President’s political allies and permanently shield the President, his family, and his companies from accountability for any past tax crimes,” continued Durbin. “While deploying the Justice Department as a shield for the President and his cronies, Blanche has also used our top law-enforcement agency as a sword against Trump’s political opponents. He brought a paper-thin indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that has a long history of exposing violent white supremacist extremists who are allies of this White House. And he brought DOJ’s second baseless, vindictive indictment against former FBI Director James Comey. This prosecution was personally ordered up by the President, who despises Comey for overseeing the investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election,” elaborated Durbin. Durbin then cited former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee, where she told lawmakers that Blanche “was in charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files.” “Blanche’s direct role in the Department’s failure to follow the law and protect the victims and survivors of Epstein’s abuse is disqualifying. These failures follow the inexplicable transfer of Ghislane Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator, to a minimum-security prison after Blanche personally conducted an inappropriate and ineffectual two-day interview with her. Such a move is unprecedented for someone convicted of the crimes she committed and rightly received bipartisan scrutiny. Survivors deserve an Attorney General who will ensure transparency and fairness in the justice system—instead, many of them were exposed while the network of people around their abusers remained redacted. When Blanche appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, my Democratic colleagues and I will press him for answers and urge him to comply fully with the Epstein Files Transparency Act ,” said Durbin. “When the Senate considered the confirmation of Todd Blanche to be Deputy Attorney General a year ago, I voted no. The independence of DOJ has been decimated under Blanche’s authority. I had no confidence in him before…and after everything we’ve seen, I doubt we can have confidence in him now,” concluded Durbin. For a PDF version of his Congressional Record statement, click here . -30- Print Email Share Tweet