As Confirmation Hearing Nears, Todd Blanche’s Role in Epstein Case Draws Scrutiny
Source: NYT > U.S. > Politics · Bias: Center Left
Summary
Todd Blanche’s role in interviewing Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will be front and center as he seeks to become attorney general.
As Confirmation Hearing Nears, Todd Blanche’s Role in Epstein Case Draws Scrutiny
Center Left
Todd Blanche’s role in interviewing Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will be front and center as he seeks to become attorney general.
Maine Democrats on Saturday overwhelmingly nominated Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president and logger by trade, as their party’s nominee to challenge longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins in November’s high-stakes US Senate election.“Well, thank you, Maine,” Jackson, 58, said after securing the votes of 566 of 571 delegates during Saturday’s special Democratic convention at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. “Today we turn the page, today this becomes a general election campaign, and today we win the work of defeating Susan Collins in November.”“For nearly 30 years, Collins has told Maine that she is ‘concerned’,” Jackson said, referring to the 73-year-old incumbent’s go-to word when President Donald Trump and Republicans attack rights and justice. “She was concerned while she rubber-stamped Trump’s Medicaid cuts and gutted our healthcare.”“She’s concerned when she cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy,” he continued. “Concerned when she confirmed justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. And really tragically, she was concerned when she gave [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] billions to terrorize our neighbors and murder people in the streets with no accountability.”“But concern does not lower the costs of groceries or gas,” Jackson said. “Concern does not keep our monitoring wards of rural hospitals like down in Lincoln County open. Concern does not restore all the rights that she’s taken away. Maine does not need another six years of concern. We need someone with courage. We need a fighter, and we need a senator who remembers exactly who sent them to Washington.”“So if you’ve ever been ignored, underestimated, pushed around, or told that you have to wait your turn while the rich cut the line, I’m asking you to stand with us in this campaign,” he continued. “If you believe in your heart that healthcare is a right, stand with us. And if you believe that workers deserve power, stand with us. And if you believe our freedoms are worth defending, stand with us.”“And if you believe that Maine deserves a senator who will fight like hell for working-class people, well, stand with us,” Jackson added. “We have a party to unite, we have a movement to build, and we have a senator to defeat.”Jackson’s improbably rapid rise followed former Democratic nominee Graham Platner’s withdrawal from the race earlier this month amid allegations of sexual assault and abusive behavior. Supporters of Platner’s progressive platform warned at the time that they would not back a replacement candidate who did not share the same pro-worker, anti-war agenda.While Collins spokeswoman Blake Kernen called Jackson a “low-energy version” of Platner, Maine Democrats decided the fifth-generation lumberjack fit the bill.“The working class has been left behind and forgotten about,” Shelly Mountain, a former Aroostook County Democratic Committee chairwoman and Jackson delegate at the convention, told NBC News. “He is definitely working class and always—has always—been a champion for the working class.”Progressive politicians, advocacy groups, and labor organizations cheered Jackson’s nomination, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) saying that “he’s ready to fight for working people and flip this seat.”International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) president Brian Bryant said Saturday that “Troy Jackson knows firsthand what it means to work hard for a living and fight for a better future for working families.”“Throughout his career, he has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with union members and working people, never backing down from a challenge when workers’ rights were on the line,” he added. “He represents the strength of a people-powered movement focused on fairness, opportunity, and economic justice. Troy has our full support as he heads to the general election.”
President Trump’s newly announced tariffs could put Republican candidates at risk going into the midterms as Democrats seek to go on the offensive over the economic impact of Trump’s trade agenda. The Trump administration announced Thursday it will impose double-digit tariffs on imports from 60 trading partners over forced labor violations. Those duties went into…
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's one-word answer was flagged Saturday as a clear sign of the damage Jeffrey Epstein has wreaked on MAGA.Asked whether President Donald Trump or his administration planned to intervene in the UK extradition case against Andrew and Tristan Tate, Leavitt replied flatly: "No." The i Paper columnist Sarah Baxter argued Saturday that the single syllable reveals how thoroughly Trump's ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein have depleted his political capital. The president, she wrote, can no longer afford to spend it defending a pair of accused sex abusers — despite them being major allies.Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the posture a day earlier from the Philippines. "There's no role for us to play at this moment or maybe ever in that regard," Rubio told reporters, according to Axios.The cold shoulder marks a striking reversal. In February 2025, the Financial Times reported that Trump officials pressured Romania to ease travel restrictions on the Tates, and days later the brothers boarded a private jet to Fort Lauderdale.The Tates, dual British-American citizens, were arrested by U.S. Marshals in Miami on July 18 after British prosecutors filed 38 new sex-crime charges, bringing their combined total to 59 counts. Andrew Tate faces 42 charges including rape, sex trafficking and offenses relating to indecent images of a child; Tristan Tate faces 17.Their lawyer, Joseph McBride, who previously represented January 6 defendants, has tried to press familiar buttons. He wrote on X that the brothers were being held as "political prisoners on American soil" in solitary confinement. Andrew Tate himself claimed he was locked in a unit next to "a cannibal who screams throughout the night."None of it has moved the administration.On Capitol Hill, Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), a House Oversight Committee member, sent a letter to Chair James Comer this week requesting an investigation into "potential political interference" surrounding the Tates' case. Ansari also asked that Barron Trump be called to testify about any knowledge of the brothers' alleged crimes. A spokesperson for the Tates has previously called reports linking Barron to Andrew Tate fake news.
Subcontractors who worked on former President Barack Obama’s presidential library are claiming they haven’t been paid. A Fox News report reveals that three more subcontractors have hit […]
New York City Schools only held back 0.4 percent of students in grades 3-8 last year even as half of city schools consistently flunking their students.
