WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next US attorney general (AG) — his former defence lawyer Todd Blanche — came in for tough questioning from Democrats at a fiery Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

“In less than 18 months at the Department of Justice you’ve shown you’re still President Trump’s personal attorney,” Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said.

“This nation deserves an attorney general who loves the Constitution more than any single president,” Durbin said. “An attorney general focused on keeping America safe and combating corruption, not satisfying the president’s personal grievances.”

Blanche, who has been acting attorney general since Pam `I’m his lawyer’ Bondi was fired in April, defended his record, although he made a verbal flub when asked by Republican Senator John Kennedy if he and Trump were “friends”.

“I’m his lawyer,” Blanche replied, before correcting himself and saying he “was his lawyer”.

Democratic senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Chris Coons took aim at Blanche over the firing of hundreds of career Department of Justice employees seen as insufficiently loyal to the Republican president.

“You’ve cleaned house of every attorney who worked on a case related to Trump,” Whitehouse said.

“You’re in charge of a Department of Justice I don’t recognise -- prosecuting the president’s political enemies and firing rank-and-file prosecutors and FBI agents because of the cases they were assigned to,” Coons said.

Blanche pushed back, calling Whitehouse’s questions “obnoxious” and accusing him of lying about his tenure at the department.

Blanche has been closely tied to what Democrats have dubbed a “retribution” campaign by the president against his perceived political enemies.

Former FBI director James Comey, an outspoken Trump critic, is among those who have been targeted by the Department of Justice under Blanche. Comey was indicted in April for allegedly threatening Trump’s life in an Instagram post.

Blanche has also controversially defended a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponisation fund” to compensate Trump’s political allies and a deal that shielded the president from audit of his past tax returns.

Epstein’s victims

Todd Blanche has also come in for criticism from victims of Jeffrey Epstein over his handling of the release of investigative files about the convicted sex offender, a one-time close friend of Trump.

He said the Department of Justice would bring charges if evidence surfaced against anyone associated with Epstein.

“If we learn today, if we learn next week, if we learn next month that there’s an individual that we can investigate, indict, and prosecute out of the Epstein files, you better believe it, we will,” Blanche said.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2026