{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-statement-on-judiciary-committees-vote-to-advance-todd-blanches-nomination-for-attorney-general", "Booker Statement on Judiciary Committee\u2019s Vote to Advance Todd Blanche\u2019s Nomination for Attorney General", "2026-08-04", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member of the Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights Subcommittee, issued the following statement after the Committee voted to advance Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination for Attorney General:\n\n\u201cToday, the Judiciary Committee advanced a nominee for Attorney General who has made his loyalties clear \u2014 and they aren\u2019t to the American people.\n\n\u201cTodd Blanche\u2019s record speaks for itself: he has shown neither independence nor integrity, and he is unfit to serve as our nation\u2019s chief law enforcement officer. His only qualification is his unwavering loyalty to President Trump and his political allies \u2014 at the expense of the American people and the mission of the office he is charged to uphold.\n\n\u201cThe Judiciary Committee has advanced a nominee whose motives are plain for the world to see: he is willing to subordinate justice to serve one man, at the peril of everyone else. Don\u2019t take my word for it \u2014 listen to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, his former DOJ colleagues, and legal experts across both parties.\n\n\u201cTodd Blanche engineered a $1.776 billion slush fund to reward the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6, on behalf of his forever-client, Donald Trump. This is a man who refused to meet with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell survivors until a Republican colleague threatened to withhold his vote.\n\n\u201cAnd when he finally did meet with the survivors, they described the encounter as demoralizing, condescending, and gaslighting \u2014 a meeting where their voices were minimized and their pain dismissed.\n\n\u201cTodd Blanche couldn\u2019t find time for survivors, yet made time to travel to Florida to meet with a convicted child sex trafficker for the specific purpose of extracting testimony to exonerate Donald Trump after his name appeared in the Epstein files hundreds of times. convicted child sex trafficker. Days later, he rewarded her with a transfer to the federal government\u2019s lowest-security prison camp\u2014a facility where people convicted of child sex crimes are not even permitted to be housed.\n\n\u201cA vote for Todd Blanche is a vote to co-sign a collusive settlement and immunity deal, to applaud retaliation against career prosecutors and public servants, to reward the stonewalling of survivors, and to subordinate the rule of law to one man's personal and political interests.\n\n\u201cThe American people are watching, and they will remember this vote.\n\n\"I will continue to use every oversight tool available to hold Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice accountable \u2014 to insist on transparency, to defend the independence of career prosecutors, and to fight for the principles of justice, fairness, and the rule of law that our democracy depends on.\"", 1, "2026-08-05T07:37:37Z", "2026-08-05T07:38:44Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-statement-on-judiciary-committees-vote-to-advance-todd-blanches-nomination-for-attorney-general"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3867667876183987, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}