{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.coons.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-coons-presses-attorney-general-nominee-todd-blanche-on-independence-from-trump-during-confirmation-hearing/", "Senator Coons presses Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche on independence from Trump during confirmation hearing", "2026-07-15", "2026", "2026-07", "Democrat", "Senate", "DE", "Christopher A. Coons", "C001088", "www.coons.senate.gov", "coons", "https://www.coons.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) questioned Todd Blanche, President Trump\u2019s nominee for Attorney General of the United States, at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing today, where he pressed Blanche on whether he would stand up to the president and highlighted Blanche\u2019s past support for President Trump\u2019s mass pardons for January 6 rioters who attacked Capitol Police officers.\n\nPresident Trump fired former Attorney General Pam Bondi in April, barely a year after taking office, amid reports that he had grown frustrated that the DOJ was not doing enough to prosecute his political opponents. Blanche, President Trump\u2019s former personal attorney and Bondi\u2019s deputy, took over as acting attorney general and is now seeking Senate confirmation to lead the department permanently.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re in charge of a Department of Justice I don\u2019t recognize: prosecuting the president\u2019s political enemies, firing rank-and-file prosecutors and FBI agents because of the cases they were assigned to, slashing grants for law enforcement and public safety,\u201d said Senator Coons.\n\nSenator Coons also pushed Blanche on the proposed $1.8 billion \u201cweaponization fund\u201d he has tried to create for President Trump to reward political allies and President Trump\u2019s blanket pardons of individuals charged in connection with the January 6 attack, including rioters who were convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers. Blanche struggled to answer questions about the pardons after Senator Coons confronted him with his own remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference where Blanche \u201ctrumpeted [the pardons] as an achievement.\u201d\n\nA video and full transcript of Senator Coons\u2019 comments are available below.\n\nWATCH HERE.\n\nSenator Coons: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member. Acting Attorney General Blanche, thank you for your service and for appearing here. And thank you to your family and to the men and women of the Department of Justice who work tirelessly to fight crime and to make our nation secure, I\u2019m grateful for their service.\n\nI\u2019m sorry that your schedule apparently didn\u2019t permit us to meet before this confirmation hearing, but I hope and expect we\u2019ll find time to meet soon after today.\n\nBlanche: Absolutely.\n\nSenator Coons: Thank you. As I consider your nomination, like all other nominations to similar cabinet positions, I need to know you\u2019re qualified to serve. You demonstrably are. That you have the policy views to serve well. We will discuss that today. And, most importantly in this role, that you have the independence to serve as the attorney general for the American people.\n\nAnd that last question has troubled me the most. You\u2019re in charge of a Department of Justice I don\u2019t recognize: prosecuting the president\u2019s political enemies, firing rank-and-file prosecutors and FBI agents because of the cases they were assigned to, slashing grants for law enforcement and public safety.\n\nThese are some actions that, in your previous confirmation hearing before us, you said you would not take. Now, I appreciate your statement walking back the $1.8 billion \u201cweaponization fund\u201d that you created, but I question how it got that far, and we\u2019ll get into that.\n\nYou sat in an appropriations hearing earlier this year before me and defended it at that time. In fact, if I remember correctly, you told me I was wrong for criticizing it. But following questions by Senators Durbin and Cornyn, I\u2019m concerned it\u2019s not dead yet, and I think we should talk that through.\n\nOverall, this is not what I believe the American people expect or deserve from the Department of Justice.\n\nHaving spent critical parts of January 6 in this room taking shelter from the mob, I just wanted to open with some questions. How many people were convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers on January 6?\n\nBlanche: I believe around 120, approximately, but I could be off a few more.\n\nSenator Coons: You are. The answer is more than 200. And how many of those individuals had their sentences commuted or were pardoned by President Trump?\n\nBlanche: President Trump either commuted or pardoned every defendant from the January 6 events.\n\nSenator Coons: That\u2019s correct. And in this room right now, and outside this room, are Capitol Police officers protecting us in this hearing room. How many of them do you think might have friends or colleagues who were attacked by supporters of the president on January 6?\n\nBlanche: I don\u2019t know the numbers, but I\u2019m sure many of the Capitol Police officers who are here today worked, either were working on January 6th, or knew people who were.\n\nSenator Coons: I\u2019ll just say that I consider a shameful slap in the face of the men and women of law enforcement for those convicted of assaulting police officers to have been pardoned.\n\nI know you were not serving as deputy attorney general when President Trump pardoned those folks, but you said just a few moments ago that you were not celebrating this decision by the president. He was exercising his constitutional power.\n\nBut earlier this year, in front of CPAC, a conservative event, I would say, from the transcript, you actually trumpeted it as an achievement. And I quote, saying, \u201cIf you look at what happened to the men and women convicted because of January 6, by 5 p.m. on January 20, every one of them was either pardoned or had their sentence commuted by President Trump. So, when folks say you\u2019ve done nothing, I say you have a very short memory.\u201d\n\nWould you say that you\u2019re proud of President Trump\u2019s decision to pardon individuals who assaulted law enforcement?\n\nBlanche: No, that\u2019s not what I was saying there at all, Senator. So, I was responding to inquiries around why more hadn\u2019t been done by the Department of Justice with respect to January 6 defendants. And so, my answer was that the January 6 defendants and some of their lawyers had a short memory because a lot had already been done. Indeed, by the end of the day on January 20, they had all been pardoned or commuted. So, I wasn\u2019t celebrating it. I was merely stating a fact, which is that the January 6 defendants did receive a very generous pardon or commutation from President Trump. Every one of them on January 6.\n\nSenator Coons: A generous \u2013 and in my view, for those who had assaulted police officers \u2013 unwarranted, unjustified, ahistorical, and a terrible precedent.\n\nLet me move on to questions I\u2019ve asked in previous hearings. Is President Trump, just as a simple matter of constitutional law, eligible to run for another term as president in 2028?\n\nBlanche: I don\u2019t believe he is. No.\n\nSenator Coons: That is correct, in my view, reading of the plain language of the 22nd Amendment. Why do you think several of the judicial nominees of this administration have refused repeatedly to answer that question simply and clearly, as you just did, when I put it to them?\n\nBlanche: I have no idea why they answer questions.\n\nSenator Coons: Me neither. It was confounding.\n\nBlanche: You are asking me to speculate about something I don\u2019t know.\n\nSenator Coons: Is the Department of Justice that you are running independent from the White House?\n\nBlanche: The Department of Justice, like every single department in the executive, is part of the executive. I mean, Article II of the Constitution gives the power of the executive to President Trump.\n\nSo, we certainly operate with integrity. We certainly operate in the single mindset to serve the American people and do the right thing.\n\nBut I am a member, if confirmed, I will be a member of the cabinet. I\u2019m serving in the acting capacity that way now, just like the other cabinet members. And President Trump can fire me whenever he wants, so\u2026\n\nSenator Coons: Do you have a sense why he fired your predecessor?\n\nBlanche: I have no idea. President Trump, we all serve with the pleasure of President Trump in this administration.\n\nSenator Coons: Did President Trump ever post on Truth Social directing your predecessor to get at it, to prosecute his perceived political enemies?\n\nBlanche: I don\u2019t think those were his exact words, but no.\n\nSenator Coons: Those were not his exact words, but I thought it was the intention.\n\nIt is my impression, sir, that you are here rather than your predecessor because the president was unhappy with her failures to actually secure convictions of folks like Attorney General Tish James or former FBI Director Jim Comey.\n\nIf you\u2019re confirmed and you\u2019re asked to take an action you believe to be illegal or unethical, would you resign?\n\nBlanche: That will never happen. But yes, if it were to happen, I\u2019m not going to violate my oath to the Constitution.\n\nSenator Coons: I appreciate that answer.\n\nYou did answer a question by a colleague about input that you gave to the president. Did you ever say no to the president on the slush fund, the anti-weaponization fund? Did you advise him against this?\n\nBlanche: I am not, will not, talk about communications I have with the president. I served as his lawyer for a couple years before he was elected. I\u2019m the deputy attorney general and the acting attorney general, so I\u2019m not going to talk about communications that I have with him.\n\nBut, Senator, I will say that President Trump trusts me to give him counsel. Counsel does not mean a recognized man, and so that\u2019s, and that\u2019s true in my case, like it should be in any attorney general\u2019s case.\n\nSenator Coons: Let me just, for a minute, bear down on the anti-weaponization fund.\n\nYou\u2019ve testified to the House: \u201cWe are not moving forward with that fund, period.\u201d But you\u2019ve repeatedly refused to put that commitment in writing or to submit a declaration to the court.\n\nYou\u2019re an officer of the court, a member of the bar. You should be able to make that assertion in a court filing or even in a letter submitted to this body.\n\nOn May 19, you testified before the Justice Appropriations Subcommittee, \u201cSince the case had been dismissed, there was no judge and no mechanism for judicial review.\u201d\n\nBut in an opinion this week, a federal judge wrote, and I\u2019m quoting, that your testimony was \u201cat best misleading and at worst disingenuous,\u201d explaining the court remained available to review this agreement had you sought relief.\n\nWhy not seek review of the settlement agreement or submit some record, some writing, given that the president continues to publicly champion this weaponization fund, and given your previous answer to me in another hearing that you wouldn\u2019t say whether or not those who assaulted cops on January 6 would be eligible for multimillion-dollar payouts?\n\nBlanche: So, there\u2019s a lot of questions there.\n\nFirst of all, we have put it in writing. It\u2019s in repeated court filings in EDVA and D.C. So, this narrative that you won\u2019t put it in writing happens not to be true.\n\nThe reason why neither myself nor Secretary Bessent agreed to put a declaration in is because there\u2019s long-standing precedent that judges cannot ask cabinet secretaries or people like me to put in declarations. It has nothing to do with whether the fund is alive. I\u2019m under oath today, and I\u2019ve said it\u2019s dead repeatedly. I said it to the House Oversight Committee, and I am happy to say as many times as necessary.\n\nAs far as what the judge said in Florida, just the last question you asked about Florida, that judge disagreed with what I said. I still believe that 11th Circuit precedent, which I\u2019ve studied, I am right. So, we\u2019ll see.\n\nSenator Coons: You did say earlier, \u201cThis is the most transparent Department of Justice in American history. We have nothing to hide.\u201d And you started by saying, \u201cWe\u2019re here to rebuild trust.\u201d\n\nTwo decisions, or two OLC opinions, I\u2019m very interested in. I\u2019m the senior Democrat on defense and intelligence appropes. I\u2019m the most senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee on my side who\u2019s currently serving on this committee.\n\nI\u2019m curious as to why the most transparent department has refused to release the OLC opinion that justifies the 66 strikes the military has conducted on boats in the Caribbean, which have killed more than 220 people, either a redacted version or in a classified setting to me and others who are in relevant decision-making positions.\n\nBlanche: Well, Senator, we made the head of OLC available on multiple occasions to explain that to you and other members of the committee, and that is extraordinarily transparent and unprecedented that we\u2019ve done that. Whether an OLC opinion is released, there\u2019s a lot of process that goes into that. But the idea that we were not transparent about our legal basis there is absolutely not true.\n\nSenator Coons: Okay, another chance to be transparent: The FISA court in March certified your Section 702 proceedings but found compliance deficiencies. This is an important power of the federal government that will soon be up again for vote, and you have not declassified that opinion.\n\nSenators Cotton and Warner, Republican and Democratic leads on Intelligence, in April wrote the administration saying that they expected declassification of this March opinion within two weeks. Yet it remains classified. You have a bipartisan request from the leadership of Intel. Will you declassify it or make it available to us?\n\nBlanche: We\u2019ll continue to look at that. I agree with you that that\u2019s a very important issue, and we need 702 reauthorized.\n\nSenator Coons: Thank you. Last question, if I could.\n\nThe Safer Supervision Act is co-sponsored by Senators Lee, Cornyn, Tillis, and Lankford, and it gives a path forward to making sure that federal probation and parole is more effective. We\u2019ve discussed it before. Will you meet with me to talk about ways that this important criminal justice reform, supported by federal law enforcement, could move forward?\n\nBlanche: I think it\u2019s, yes, absolutely. I very much agree with what you\u2019re trying to do there, Senator.", 1, "2026-07-16T07:21:44Z", "2026-07-16T07:23:13Z"]], "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.coons.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-coons-presses-attorney-general-nominee-todd-blanche-on-independence-from-trump-during-confirmation-hearing/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5122981276363134, "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"}