Attorney general nomination faces another week of scrutiny

Members of the Senate tasked with advancing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to be the nation’s top law enforcer on Thursday pushed the vote back one week.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s delayed vote to send the controversial nominee to the full Senate is “per standard committee practice,” according to a spokesperson for Chairman Chuck Grassley.

The Iowa Republican and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., used the time that had been allocated for the vote to comment at length on Blanche’s nomination. Grassley then recessed the session because too many Republicans were absent, which he described as “kind of rude.”

Grassley praised the selection of Blanche and said the Justice Department under his leadership as deputy and acting attorney general “has protected Americans at every turn,” but that committee Democrats “like clockwork, sought to defame him.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., led a forum Wednesday featuring former Justice Department officials and a survivor of abuse by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

The witnesses questioned Blanche’s fitness to lead the Justice Department following his handling of the Epstein files release, during which several victims’ identities were unmasked, and his role in establishing a nearly $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund as part of President Donald Trump’s settlement with his own administration’s IRS.

Durbin said Thursday he and fellow Democrats oppose Blanche, who worked as Trump’s personal defense lawyer prior to his appointment to the Justice Department, because he "will continue to serve the interests of Donald Trump, not the American people."

Sen. Darline Graham joins committee

Committee members were scheduled to address other business, including voting on federal judicial nominees in Ohio and Oklahoma and approving subcommittee roles for Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. She was sworn in July 14 following the sudden death of her brother.

The committee meeting marked the first for Graham, who was not yet part of the panel when members questioned Blanche for nearly five hours during a confirmation hearing July 15. Her arrival on the GOP-led committee brings the split among members back to 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats and is likely a positive development for Blanche.

Nominations require a majority vote to advance to the Senate floor. All eyes are on whether committee Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who announced his retirement last year, and John Cornyn of Texas will support Blanche after Trump effectively ended both of their Senate careers.

Trump subjected Tillis to intense criticism for opposing the Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 and said he would find candidates to oppose Tillis in his primary. Trump endorsed Cornyn’s primary opponent earlier this year.

Both Tillis and Cornyn pressed Blanche during his confirmation hearing about formally ending the "anti-weaponization" fund.

While Cornyn attended Thursday morning’s Judiciary Committee meeting, Tillis was one of several members absent. Grassley’s spokesperson attributed Tillis’ absence to a Senate Banking Committee meeting that convened just a half-hour before the scheduled Judiciary Committee meeting. Tillis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his absence.

Blanche was a prosecutor in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 2006 to 2014.

He later left the Justice Department for private practice and represented Trump as his personal defense attorney in three criminal cases in 2023 and 2024.

Trump, with Senate Republican approval, installed Blanche as deputy attorney general in March 2025.

Trump announced Blanche as his pick for attorney general in early June, just over two months after former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure.