Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Monday ahead of his confirmation hearing for attorney general this summer.
Blanche has been occupying the spot since former Attorney General Pam Bondi resigned earlier this year and was just recently nominated by President Donald Trump. He faces a tough confirmation battle, with nearly all Democrats guaranteed to be “no” votes. Grassley — the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will decide whether to advance Blanche — gave a positive impression of the meeting.
“I appreciated the opportunity to sit down again with Todd Blanche, who’s spent the last year and a half supporting President Trump’s mission of law and order as Deputy Attorney General and now Acting Attorney General. Blanche is prepared to build on that success and continue working hard to keep American families safe as the next Attorney General,” Grassley said.
“In all my years of congressional oversight, this Department of Justice has been the most responsive to my oversight requests — but there’s still more work to be done and more records to be produced. I expect Blanche to respond to my outstanding requests for records, so the American people get the transparency and accountability they deserve,” he added.
The longtime senator concluded by saying he looked forward to advancing Blanche’s nomination and that the hearing would be held sometime in July.
FEDERAL JUDGE WANTS TODD BLANCHE TO SWEAR IN WRITING ANTI-WEAPONIZATION FUND WON’T BE REVIVED
Bondi was fired by Trump at the beginning of April over her handling of the Epstein files and what he perceived as an attorney general who wasn’t aggressive enough in implementing his agenda.
Blanche also faces questions about Jeffrey Epstein but has more immediately faced criticism around Trump’s proposed anti-weaponization fund.