Rising This Week: The Senate consents
Todd Blanche, given Cassidy's stamp of approval for Attorney General, heads toward an Epstein files disaster this week.
In the wee-small hours of Saturday morning, Attorney General Todd Blanche finally secured the Senate’s stamp of approval for his confirmation following weeks of pretending to address the concerns of Republican holdouts.
Throughout that period, a pantomime of the advice and consent process took place: Republican senators demanded Blanche meet conditions that he either ignored or superficially addressed. For example, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) wanted Blanche to meet with Epstein survivors, but those survivors wound up being dissatisfied by what they described as a box-checking session where their concerns were ignored. Tillis, however, was satisfied.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) couldn’t have been clearer: Blanche needed to modify the purported settlement agreement in Trump v. Internal Revenue Service to rescind the $1.776 billion slush fund that he called a “payout pot for punks” — and restrain Donald Trump’s sweeping tax amnesty for himself, his family and his associates. Cornyn achieved nothing close to that and cast his vote for Blanche, anyway.
Once Blanche cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee, a third departing Republican senator cast the deciding vote: Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the physician who previously smothered his qualms about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine views to install him as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Cassidy recognized what he called Blanche’s “poor judgment” and “episodes of apparent lawfare — DOJ bringing suits against political enemies.” Cassidy also appeared to choke up while explaining his vote for Blanche, as his voice quaked. (He claimed on Sunday that the “incredible privilege” of representing his state and nation got him emotional, not the second surrender of his convictions on a confirmation vote.)
Ultimately, three GOP senators leaving public life paved the way for Blanche’s confirmation. In doing so, they gave cover to Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine to oppose Blanche, preserving their political careers before the midterm elections without blocking Trump’s nominee.
Blanche’s confirmation became official when most of the United States was asleep: at 4 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday morning.
Now, Blanche jumps out of the frying pan into the fire during an upcoming hearing this week in a lawsuit filed by Katie Phang.
On Thursday, the Trump Justice Department will have to defend withholding the release of certain Epstein files before Senior U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has expressed heavy skepticism about the nondisclosure. Sullivan warned that the Trump Justice Department did not “comply with the Court’s order” to provide documentation supporting their positions.
In his three-page order, Sullivan asked questions that appear to answer themselves. For example, the government claimed to be unable to produce handwritten notes of FBI interviews with witnesses, known as 302s, because it was supposedly harder to redact the names of victims from the documents.
Sullivan, reasonably, wants an explanation, writing: “The Defendant shall be prepared to explain why the handwritten notes cannot be redacted manually, or why the redactions cannot be accomplished in another way.”
The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the Trump administration to provide written explanations for all withheld files on the Federal Register, which never happened. Sullivan ordered the government to be “prepared to discuss his timing for complying with this requirement.”
What’s more, Judge Sullivan has allowed any member of the general public to dial-in to a toll-free phone line to listen to him interrogate the government about these failures.
At the time of Blanche’s confirmation, the Justice Department that he led lost roughly a quarter of its employees, who were either purged or resigned. It lost high-profile cases against Trump’s targets, including James Comey, Letitia James, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, six Democratic lawmakers, and immigration protesters from coast to coast. Federal judges found Blanche’s Justice Department forfeited the presumption of regularity in more than 40 cases, a finding that would have been scandalous if found once during a previous administration. Blanche has been enmeshed in scandal over his soft-glove treatment of Ghislaine Maxwell and pattern of rewarding Trump’s allies and punishing his enemies.
Republican senators almost uniformly endorsed that record — unless, of course, a couple are seeking reelection in competitive jurisdictions.
Look out for live coverage of Phang v. Blanche on All Rise News this week.
This newsletter aims to shed light on the levers of power in U.S. institutions, which is why “Rising This Week” contains weekly previews of court hearings, protests, and other forms of civic engagement. This week’s listings include instructions for public access to the Epstein files hearing.
