Todd Blanche Apologizes to Epstein Victims as Trump Loyalty Questions Ignite Senate Hearing

Todd Blanche arrived on Capitol Hill promising to rebuild trust in the Justice Department. Instead, his confirmation hearing quickly became a tense examination of his loyalty to President Donald Trump, his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and a controversial government settlement involving his former client.

Blanche, who is seeking Senate confirmation as attorney general, repeatedly insisted that he could lead the nation’s top law enforcement agency with integrity. Democratic senators were not convinced. They argued that his previous role as Trump’s personal attorney had followed him into the Justice Department, raising serious questions about whether he could act independently.

The most revealing moment may have come when Blanche appeared to forget that his attorney-client relationship with Trump was supposed to be over.

One correction captured the hearing’s central problem.

During questioning, Sen. John Kennedy asked Blanche about his personal relationship with the president. “I am his lawyer,” Blanche replied.

He quickly corrected himself, saying he “was” Trump’s lawyer. The exchange lasted only a few seconds, but it immediately drew attention because it reflected the concern hanging over his nomination.

Blanche represented Trump in several criminal cases before joining the administration. He defended him during the Manhattan trial that ended in Trump’s conviction for falsifying business records and also worked on the federal classified-documents case before it was dismissed.

Now, Blanche is asking senators to trust him with an office expected to enforce federal law without fear or political favoritism.

He argued that his relationship with Trump would not prevent him from offering independent advice. Blanche said the president trusted him to provide honest counsel and insisted that being a trusted adviser did not make him a “yes man.”

Still, he acknowledged that the attorney general is part of the executive branch and serves at the president’s pleasure.

“President Trump can fire me whenever he wants,” Blanche told the committee.

Epstein victims received an apology, but questions remained.

Some of the hearing’s most emotional testimony focused on the Justice Department’s release of records related to Jeffrey Epstein.

Blanche admitted that the department made mistakes when victims’ names were not properly removed from some documents. Under pressure from Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, he apologized directly.

“Any mistake that we made should not have been made,” Blanche said.

He claimed Justice Department lawyers worked around the clock to correct the errors and protect victims once the problems were discovered. Blanche described the review of the files as a “herculean task” and said the administration had shown greater transparency than previous governments. That defense did not satisfy critics.

Lawmakers questioned why some documents remained unavailable and why victims’ identities were exposed during a process that was supposed to protect them. Blanche accepted responsibility for the redaction failures but continued to defend the department’s overall approach.

He also said prosecutors remained willing to pursue anyone connected to Epstein’s abuse if credible evidence emerged. “I would love to prosecute anyone who did any harm,” Blanche told senators.

However, his statements about meeting with victims created confusion. Blanche initially suggested that legal and ethical restrictions prevented him from speaking with them directly. Later, he indicated that meetings could potentially occur through their attorneys.

The contradiction gave Democrats another opening to question his transparency.

A Trump tax settlement alarmed both parties.

Blanche also struggled to calm concerns about a Justice Department settlement involving Trump and the Internal Revenue Service.

The agreement reportedly offered broad protections against certain government actions and included plans for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. Critics feared the money could be used to compensate Trump allies who claimed they had been unfairly targeted by federal agencies.

A judge struck down the settlement and criticized the government attorneys involved. Blanche repeatedly told senators that the proposed fund was no longer moving forward. “The fund is dead,” he said.

Yet Republican Sen. John Cornyn pressed him on why the agreement had not been formally withdrawn. Cornyn also questioned language that appeared to extend protections beyond the IRS and the Treasury Department.

Blanche maintained that he did not interpret the agreement that broadly. Cornyn openly disagreed and later said he remained undecided about supporting the nomination.

That exchange suggested Blanche’s challenges were not limited to Democratic opposition. Even some Republicans appeared uncomfortable with an agreement that could have offered extraordinary protections to a sitting president.

Democrats turned the hearing into a character test.

The hearing became increasingly combative as Democratic senators accused Blanche of abandoning the principles he once followed as a career prosecutor.

Sen. Dick Durbin accused him of participating in corruption. Sen. Adam Schiff asked what had happened to the former prosecutor who once worked inside the same institution he was now accused of politicizing. Blanche pushed back forcefully. “You can’t accuse me of violating ethical rules and then lie about what I did,” he told Schiff.

When Sen. Cory Booker attempted to press him for a direct response, Blanche replied, “You can ask the questions, but you cannot control my answers.”

Another sharp confrontation came when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse questioned Blanche about FBI Director Kash Patel. Whitehouse pointed to controversies surrounding Patel and asked how long Blanche intended to “put up with” him.

Blanche called the question “extraordinarily obnoxious” and said he had complete confidence in the FBI director. “Great,” Whitehouse responded. “You get to own that.”

January 6 pardons exposed another fault line

Blanche also defended Trump’s constitutional authority to pardon people convicted in connection with the January 6 Capitol attack.

He stopped short of endorsing the decision but said the president had the legal power to pardon anyone he chose. “I’m not celebrating that,” Blanche said. “It’s a fact.”

He added that he did not support violence against law enforcement officers. However, he defended the Justice Department’s decision to end pending prosecutions after Trump issued the pardons, arguing that prosecutors were required to follow the law.

Blanche also signaled that the department could investigate former special counsel Jack Smith after Republican senators raised allegations that Smith misled lawmakers about obtaining telephone records. When asked whether such an investigation was possible, Blanche answered, “Yes.”

The real question is whether Americans will trust him.

Blanche’s experience is not in dispute. He spent years as a federal prosecutor before entering private practice, and he understands how the Justice Department operates. The controversy is about what he has done with that experience.

More than 1,200 former Justice Department employees have urged senators to reject his nomination. Epstein victims, legal groups and former government officials have also questioned whether his leadership would protect the department’s independence.

Blanche told senators he wanted to restore public faith in federal law enforcement. Yet his testimony repeatedly returned to Trump, the man he once defended in court and the president who elevated him to the Justice Department’s highest ranks. His nomination will now move toward a committee vote and, potentially, a full Senate confirmation.

The decision will determine more than who leads the Justice Department. It will test whether senators believe Todd Blanche has truly stopped being Donald Trump’s lawyer, or whether that role still defines the way he approaches power.