Senate committee postpones vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination over disagreements with GOP senators

Two Republicans on the Judiciary Committee said they have not received the assurances they’re seeking from the Justice Department regarding the Trump-IRS settlement.

'Oh my God!' Todd Blanche's 'slippery' escape from near-certain rebuke stuns onlookers

The delayed vote to advance the confirmation of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is drawing sharp online reactions.On Wednesday, reporters revealed that the Senate Judiciary Committee planned to delay the markup and vote on Blanche's nomination to be President Donald Trump's attorney general, with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the committee chair, saying he's working to help shore up votes to advance the nomination.Online, reactions ranged from surprise to condemnation of the move by the Republican-led committee. Blanche's confirmation had been complicated by his handling of the Epstein files as deputy attorney general and his refusal to put in writing that Trump's anti-weaponization fund is dead."Republicans just took down the Blanche vote for tomorrow," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) reacted on Bluesky. "Shows how truthful Blanche was about the slush fund deal being dead, that he couldn't even convince Republicans. He's a slippery weasel, and that was a slippery deal.""Simply have to lmao," wrote Max Steele, the senior director of communications for the gun-control advocacy group Everytown.Capitol Hill reporter Scott MacFarlane shared a quote from Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), saying, "Republicans were forced to postpone Todd Blanche's confirmation vote because they knew he was too corrupt and untrustworthy to get enough votes."Garcia's quote continued, "Blanche went from being Trump's personal lawyer to running the Epstein files cover-up and orchestrating billion-dollar slush funds."Eric Michael Garcia, the Washington bureau chief at The Independent and MS NOW columnist, reacted on Bluesky by simply writing, "Oh my god!""What's really stunning here is that they went ahead with hearings when they didn't have the votes," noted Noah Berlatsky, a writer for the legal and political Substack Public Notice. "Everybody desperately tries to avoid this happening usually. If they don't have the votes, they don't hold hearings.""Republicans just took down the Blanche vote for tomorrow. Shows how truthful Blanche was about the slush fund deal being dead, that he couldn’t even convince Republicans. He’s a slippery weasel, and that was a slippery deal," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) posted on Bluesky.

Senate panel delays critical vote to advance Blanche attorney general nomination

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation process to permanently remain in the position was set back on Wednesday when a key Senate committee postponed a key vote advancing his nomination.  A spokesperson for the Senate judiciary committee, which is led by Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), suggested Wednesday’s vote was pushed back because Blanche lacks the […]

Todd Blanche’s rocky road: From the Politics Desk

In today’s edition, we dig into the uncertain paths forward for Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination and the Iran war.

Judiciary Committee cancels vote on Blanche AG nomination amid GOP opposition

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) late Wednesday evening canceled a scheduled meeting to consider the nomination of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to lead the Justice Department amid opposition from some GOP senators on the panel. “Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure. Senators Cornyn…

Mamdani blows off concerns from NY’ers over pied-à-terre mailing snafu as questions swirl over new tax

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Department of Finance Commissioner Richard Lee faced pointed questions about the botched rollout of the city's new pied-à-terre tax on wealthy homeowners, neither able to explain how massive tax bills landed in the mailbox of everyday New Yorkers.

Contemptible: Rand Paul Schedules Vote to Hold Fifth Amendment-Loving Fauci Accountable

Hammer drop exposes Todd Blanche to judge hours before confirmation vote

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's own admissions about FBI negligence in the Epstein case landed in federal court today, hours before his Senate confirmation vote.Survivors' attorneys filed the letter Wednesday before Judge Ryon McCabe in the Southern District of Florida in the case Doe 1 et al. v. United States. The filing suggests the survivors believe Blanche admitted wrongdoing by the FBI in a rush to deflect responsibility for failures in the Epstein case.The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Blanche's confirmation Thursday morning.The letter cites Blanche's statements at a July 16 meeting with survivors at Justice Department headquarters as grounds to amend the complaint. Plaintiffs said they were "seeking this relief in light of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's very recent statements to survivors."During that meeting, ABC News reported, survivors described Blanche's conduct as "dissatisfactory and contrived" when he dismissed survivor Maria Farmer, telling her that her "call [to the FBI about EpsteinI] was made in 1996," "the case was handled improperly before 2007" and "you got screwed over by the FBI but I cannot fix the FBI's lack of investigation."Those admissions, the filing shows, now sit in a federal court record the day before senators decide Blanche's fate.The underlying lawsuit, filed in September 2024, represents 33 women suing the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act — a law that allows citizens to sue the federal government for negligence — for the FBI's failures in the Epstein case. They are seeking more than $100 million.The complaint alleges the FBI received its first credible tip in 1996, when Maria Farmer reported that Epstein and Maxwell had sexually abused her and her sister. The FBI did nothing.It also alleges the FBI ignored child sexual abuse material seized in a 2005 raid of Epstein's Palm Beach mansion, failed to interview victims whose names and phone numbers it already had, and allowed Epstein to judge a beauty pageant in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2007 while under active investigation.Epstein survivor Annie Farmer, who testified at Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal trial, said she left the meeting convinced senators should vote against Blanche, ABC News reported. She called him "abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors."Annie Farmer said his evasiveness felt like "a deliberate attempt to claim the Attorney General's office is powerless in this matter.""The FBI has the power to open investigations, not me," Blanche told those assembled inside the meeting, MS NOW reported. "I'm just the attorney general," he added.The meeting only happened because Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), whose vote Blanche needs to clear the Judiciary Committee, demanded it as a condition of his support, ABC News reported. As of Wednesday afternoon, Tillis had still not committed to voting for Blanche's confirmation.That vote is scheduled for Thursday morning.