WASHINGTON — Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche faced tough questions from both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday as he seeks to make his role permanent.

Blanche was pressed about a settlement agreement between the president and the Internal Revenue Service, the Justice Department’s release of the Epstein files, the president’s blanket pardon of violent protesters who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and actions taken by the department against Trump’s opponents.

As the committee is currently constituted, Blanche would need the support of all Republican members to advance.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters during a break in the hearing that he is still “weighing” whether to support Blanche.

During the hearing, he asked Blanche about the current status of the agreement with the IRS that created a $1.8-billion “anti-weaponization” fund that could benefit Trump’s allies and granted Trump, two of his sons and his business immunity from tax audits.

“There’s so much that’s unusual about this,” Cornyn said.

Blanche said that the $1.8-billion fund is “dead,” but conceded that the agreement was still technically alive.

“I’m concerned it’s not dead yet,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said later in the hearing.

Blanche demurred when asked by Coons whether he had advised Trump that the settlement was a bad idea.

“I will not talk about communications I had with the president,” Blanche said.

In a scathing ruling this week, the federal judge presiding over the IRS case wrote that the lawsuit was improper and recommended sanctions against two Justice Department attorneys who worked on the case, though not Blanche himself.

With the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) last weekend, Republicans hold only a one-seat majority on the committee, meaning that a single Republican vote against Blanche could block the nomination unless a replacement for Graham is appointed to the panel before the expected vote on Blanche’s nomination in two weeks.

If the vote were tied, the nomination could still advance to the Senate floor, but the process would be delayed.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has previously expressed some ambivalence about supporting Blanche’s nomination, struck a more positive tone in his questioning.

While he criticized the IRS settlement agreement and Trump’s pardons of some of the Jan. 6 protesters, he made a point of saying that he wasn’t directly criticizing Blanche, whose performance at the hearing he praised.

“You’ve done a great job today,” he said.

Blanche was confirmed as deputy attorney general in March 2025 and became acting attorney general after his predecessor, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, was fired by Trump in April of this year.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) attends the confirmation hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee for acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

(Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Blanche could continue to serve as an acting attorney general even if he is not confirmed, but the administration would not be able to nominate a replacement for Blanche’s previous role of deputy attorney general.

Blanche, 51, spent 12 years working for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, working largely on drug and violent crime cases, and rose to the level of co-chief of the district’s White Plains division.

He left the office in 2014 for private practice and joined the prominent law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in 2017 as a partner. He left the firm in 2023 and went independent after other partners expressed concern when he took Trump on as a client.

Trump touted Blanche’s record ahead of the hearing.

“Todd Blanche is doing a PHENOMENAL job as Acting Attorney General of the United States,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “He is a great lawyer, always very fair, and every Republican Senator should vote to CONFIRM Todd Blanche, ASAP!”

In his opening remarks Wednesday, Blanche made the case for his nomination by emphasizing the near record-low murder rate and actions taken by the administration to take on drug cartels and protect the country’s borders.

“We are keeping America safe,” Blanche said.

Blanche defended the Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of files from its investigations into deceased sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein in which the names and personal details of numerous victims were inadvertently made public.

“Whenever we learned that any victim’s name had been improperly redacted, we immediately took them down,” Blanche said.

Survivors of Jeffery Epstein’s crimes attend the confirmation hearing of acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill.

(Eric Lee / Getty Images)

He also defended criticism that the Justice Department hasn’t brought new charges against any of Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators.

“If we learn today, if we learn next week, if we learn next month that there’s an individual we can prosecute out of the Epstein files, you better believe we will,” Blanche said.

But he declined to commit to meeting with 10 Epstein victims who were present at the hearing when pressed by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the committee.

Blanche said he could not meet with them directly if they were represented by counsel, but that his staffer, who was present, could.

“I think you ought to be in the room, because you ought to hear this,” Durbin said.

Blanche also declined to say whether he agreed with Trump’s decision to pardon more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, saying numerous times that Trump had the right to pardon anyone.

The hearing was hostile at times.

Blanche called one question by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) about whether Blanche supported FBI Director Kash Patel “extraordinarily obnoxious.”

And Blanche later exclaimed, “You don’t even let me answer, man,” during a heated exchange with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) about Blanche’s attendance at a dinner hosted by Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison as the Justice Department weighed the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.

Blanche, who served as a defense attorney for Trump before entering office, faced numerous questions about his independence from Trump.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked whether Blanche’s prior defense of Trump presented a conflict of interest in several actions taken by the Justice Department, including the IRS settlement.

“What happened to the Todd Blanche who was a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York?” Schiff asked.

“I am still here,” Blanche replied. “I am the same exact person I was when I was a federal prosecutor at SDNY.”

Schiff told The Times that he has spoken with numerous former colleagues of Blanche from his time as a federal prosecutor in New York who have been surprised by his conduct since.

“I don’t think any of them recognize him anymore,” he said.

One question seemingly designed to establish Blanche’s independence from the president might have inadvertently had the opposite effect.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) asked Blanche whether he was friends with Trump.

“I’m his lawyer,” Blanche replied, before correcting himself. “Was his lawyer.”