2026-07-14T08:00:25.555Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/14/politics/todd-blanche-senate-judiciary-committee-hearing
三年多前，唐纳德·特朗普总统找来纽约辩护律师托德·布兰奇，接手一场威胁要导致多项刑事定罪、可能让特朗普企业损失数亿美元的法律风暴。
如今，布兰奇即将正式就任这一永久性职务，成为总统报复行动的代言人——他认为近十年来有人一直试图不当针对特朗普。
他能否获得参议院确认出任司法部长尚无定论。林赛·格雷厄姆参议员突然离世，让司法委员会的共和党人仅剩一票容错空间，这让少数心存疑虑的共和党议员得以在对他们至关重要的议题上与司法部谈判。
据多位知情人士透露，布兰奇已经为周三这场高风险的司法委员会听证会准备了一周多时间，他押注自己打击帮派活动、欺诈和毒品走私的履历，以及推行政府强硬移民政策的表现，以此作为通过确认程序的敲门砖。
其中一位知情人士表示，他至少参加了一次听证会模拟演练，另一位消息人士透露，他还在着力回应相关指控——有人称他完全按照总统的意愿行事，而非为美国利益服务。
国税局诉讼是特朗普试图“操纵司法程序”，法官称
2:28 • 来源：CNN
国税局诉讼是特朗普试图“操纵司法程序”，法官称
2:28
这类批评不仅来自民主党人。一些保守派人士表示，在布兰奇签署一项近18亿美元的反武器化基金后，他们仍在考虑是否支持他。批评人士警告，这笔资金将为总统的盟友提供资金，其中包括一些冲击国会大厦的人。
布兰奇后来放弃了该计划，上个月告诉议员们：“我们不会推进这项基金，仅此而已。”政府消息人士告诉CNN，他们认为他的声明已经解决了这个问题。
佛罗里达州一名联邦法官周一斥责引发该基金以及为特朗普及其家人提供税务审计豁免权的最初诉讼，称其为“操纵司法程序”的行为。
自前任部长帕姆·邦迪4月被解雇以来，这位代理司法部长还因一系列有争议的举措受到抨击，包括起诉前联邦调查局局长詹姆斯·科米和南方贫困法律中心；放宽枪支管制措施；以及向记者发出多轮传票，要求其消息来源身份。
他接手了爱泼斯坦文件引发的后续风波。邦迪曾承诺公布有关这名定罪性犯罪者罪行的重大新证据，但未能兑现，此事一直困扰着总统。一群爱泼斯坦受害者站出来反对布兰奇的提名，指责他试图控制政治风波。布兰奇去年还与爱泼斯坦的同伙吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦见过面。
一位高级政府官员告诉CNN，白宫内部对布兰奇的任命前景持乐观态度，并将这些同样有争议的举措列为他获得确认的理由。特朗普本人也对布兰奇的表现感到满意，今年春天他对记者说：“托德·布兰奇干得非常出色。”
“托德从帕姆的错误中吸取了教训，”一名高级政府官员在布兰奇正式被提名为司法部长几天前告诉CNN，“而且还有更多举措即将出台。还有很多。”
由于参议院司法委员会的民主党人不太可能投票支持他，委员会内只要有一名共和党人投反对票，就可能破坏布兰奇的提名。
对他在参议院胜算的担忧在5月下旬达到顶峰，当时一场关于反武器化基金的共和党议员闭门会议结果糟糕，多名议员公开抨击这位代理司法部长。两周后，布兰奇宣布政府放弃该基金。
过去几周，布兰奇的团队还开展了一项针对性行动，以巩固共和党人的支持。大部分安抚工作是在他在国会山的私人会晤中完成的，布兰奇借此亲自向议员们保证，他已经放弃了该基金，他们对政治化的担忧毫无根据。
这些反对者中最主要的是得克萨斯州共和党参议员约翰·科宁，他表示对布兰奇的任命持保留态度，因为布兰奇没有表现出放弃与该基金相关的一项限制对特朗普及其家人进行税务调查的条款的迹象。科宁后来表示，他与布兰奇进行了一次“积极”的会晤，布兰奇向他承诺“将就税务审计问题提供进一步简报”。
不过，周一科宁告诉记者，该基金仍然是一个“重大担忧”，在听证会结束前，他不会承诺投票支持布兰奇。
另一位共和党委员会成员、北卡罗来纳州参议员汤姆·提利斯也对已废止的基金可能惠及哪些人表示担忧，声称如果布兰奇含糊其辞，不谴责2021年1月6日国会大厦骚乱，他就不会投票支持布兰奇。与布兰奇会晤后，提利斯表示他对这位被提名人持“积极倾向”。
布兰奇还面临关于他与特朗普私人关系的普遍批评。
将于明年任期结束后退休的提利斯在接受CNN采访时表示，如果布兰奇“哪怕有一丝缺乏独立性”的迹象，他就会反对布兰奇的提名。
民主党议员很可能会抓住这些担忧，就布兰奇对该基金的监督问题猛烈抨击他，尤其是他拒绝书面表示该基金已不再推进。他们还可能就布兰奇对爱泼斯坦事件的持续处理施压，这是另一个两党争议点。
“在司法部任职期间，布兰奇先生一直将司法部当作保护总统及其‘让美国再次伟大’盟友的盾牌，以及攻击政治对手的利剑，”司法委员会民主党领袖迪克·德宾参议员在一份声明中说。
德宾在周一的社交媒体帖子中表示，反对布兰奇提名的民主党证人包括被布兰奇解雇的前美国赦免律师莉兹·奥耶尔，以及爱泼斯坦的受害者达尼·本斯基。
听证会前夕，一些爱泼斯坦受害者还单独出现在一段视频中，敦促议员们否决布兰奇的提名，批评司法部未能在文件中对受害者信息进行编辑。布兰奇此前承认“犯了错误”，但辩称司法部已迅速采取行动纠正任何意外泄露的信息。
如果他在委员会获得成功，布兰奇在参议院全体投票中仍将面临同样微弱的优势。另有几名共和党人仔细审查了布兰奇的领导能力，包括因司法部未能限制通过邮件获取堕胎 pill 而提出批评的乔希·霍利参议员，以及就爱泼斯坦文件处理问题向布兰奇提出质疑的丽莎·穆尔科斯基参议员。
布兰奇最多只能失去四名共和党议员的支持——如果参议员米奇·麦康奈尔仍缺席无法投票，则最多只能失去三名。
但即使布兰奇的确认失败，特朗普的议程以及布兰奇的职位也未必会动摇，因为联邦法律规定，在最高职位空缺期间，副司法部长仍可领导司法部。
布兰奇也承诺无论职位如何都效忠总统：“如果他选择提名其他人，并让我去做其他事情，我会说：‘非常感谢你，我爱你，先生’，”布兰奇在就任代理司法部长的最初几天说道。
特朗普政府告知法院“反武器化”基金已终止
0:36 • 来源：CNN
特朗普政府告知法院“反武器化”基金已终止
0:36
当布兰奇在委员会作证时，他的部门仍在推进全国范围内的重大法律斗争，并面临多位联邦法官的愤怒。
《纽约时报》的几名记者被迫在纽约向大陪审团作证，此前该报报道了有关特朗普新捐赠的卡塔尔资金所购飞机被用作空军一号的安全担忧。这些传票是发给报道国家安全问题的记者的第二轮传票，是政府针对独立新闻机构行动升级的一部分。司法部发言人告诉CNN，记者本身并非刑事调查的目标。
即便如此，国防部长皮特·赫格斯西周一宣布，国防部和司法部已成立联合特别工作组，“识别并起诉泄密者”。该工作组的细节，包括其成员和职权范围，尚未澄清。
在佛罗里达州，检察官仍在对2016年竞选期间和首届总统任期内审查特朗普的前执法和情报官员进行广泛调查。司法部职业官员多次告诉部门领导，目前尚无提起刑事指控的途径。
司法部还采取公开行动，助推特朗普关于选举被操纵的虚假言论。布兰奇在司法部的副手试图传唤亚特兰大2020年选举工作人员的信息（尽管上周被法院驳回），并威胁如果选举官员不采取足够措施将非公民从选民名单中移除，就对其提起刑事诉讼。
本文已更新补充更多信息。
_CNN的蒂尔尼·斯尼德、霍尔姆斯·莱布兰德和艾莉森·梅因对本文亦有贡献。**
Todd Blanche has to win over skeptical Republicans. Democrats are laying lots of traps
2026-07-14T08:00:25.555Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/14/politics/todd-blanche-senate-judiciary-committee-hearing
More than three years ago, President Donald Trump turned to New York defense attorney Todd Blanche to step into a legal firestorm that threatened multiple criminal convictions and could cost Trump’s business hundreds of millions of dollars.
Now, Blanche is slated to formally undertake the permanent role as the face of the president’s campaign of retribution against those who he believes tried to improperly target him for nearly a decade.
His confirmation as the attorney general by the Senate isn’t assured. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden death left the Judiciary Committee Republicans with just one vote to lose, a razor thin margin of error that has given the few Republicans with hesitations an ability to negotiate with the department on matters most important to them.
Blanche has been prepping for Wednesday’s high-stakes Judiciary Committee hearing for more than a week, betting on his track record of cracking down on gang activity, fraud and drug trafficking, as well as enforcing the administration’s hardline immigration approach as the ticket through the confirmation process, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
He has participated in at least one practice run of the hearing, one of the sources said, and has also focused on ways to fight back against allegations that he is operating based solely on the whims of the president and not in the interest of the United States, a separate source said.
IRS lawsuit was Trump’s attempt to ‘manipulate the judicial process’, judge says
2:28 • Source: CNN
IRS lawsuit was Trump’s attempt to ‘manipulate the judicial process’, judge says
2:28
That criticism is not confined to Democrats. Some conservatives say they’re still deciding whether to back Blanche after he signed a nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, an effort critics warned would bankroll allies of the president, including some who stormed the Capitol.
Blanche later walked away from the plan, telling lawmakers last month that “we are not moving forward with the fund, period.” Administration sources told CNN that they believe his statement put that issue to rest.
A federal judge in Florida on Monday castigated the initial lawsuit that led to the fund and a tax audit immunity provision for Trump and his family as an effort to “manipulate the judicial process.”
The acting attorney general has also drawn fire for a string of contentious moves since his predecessor, Pam Bondi, was fired in April, including indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and the Southern Poverty Law Center; rollbacks of gun control measures; and waves of subpoenas issued to journalists seeking the identities of sources.
He took over the fallout of the Epstein files, which has dogged the president since Bondi promised and then failed to deliver on major new evidence about the convicted sex offender’s crimes. A group of Epstein survivors have come out against Blanche’s nomination, citing his role in efforts to contain the political fallout. And Blanche last year met with Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Inside the White House, officials have been optimistic about Blanche’s chances and have cited those same controversial actions as reasons for his confirmation, a senior administration official told CNN. Trump himself has been pleased with Blanche’s performance, telling reporters this spring that “Todd Blanche has really been doing a great job.”
“Todd learned from Pam’s mistakes,” a senior administration official told CNN days before Blanche was officially tapped to be attorney general. “And there’s more to come. A lot more to come.”
With Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee unlikely to vote for him, a single Republican no-vote in the panel could damage Blanche’s nomination.
Concerns over his chances in the Senate peaked in late May, when a disastrous closed-door meeting on the anti-weaponization fund with Senate Republicans ended with multiple lawmakers publicly lambasting the acting attorney general. Blanche announced the administration was abandoning the fund two weeks later.
Blanche’s team also developed a focused effort over the past several weeks to shore up support from Republicans. Much of that reassurance was delivered during his private meetings on Capitol Hill, where Blanche had the ability to attempt to personally assure lawmakers that he had abandoned the fund and their concerns of politicization were unfounded.
Chief among those detractors is Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who said he had reservations on Blanche’s confirmation because he has shown no signs of backing away from a provision related to the fund that limits tax investigations into Trump and his family. Cornyn later said he had a “positive” meeting with Blanche, who promised him “further briefing on the tax audit issue.”
On Monday, however, Cornyn told reporters that the fund remained a “big concern” and that he would not commit to voting for Blanche until after the hearing.
Another of the GOP committee members, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, similarly raised concerns over who could benefit from the now-defunct fund, claiming that he would not vote for Blanche if he equivocated on condemning the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. After meeting with Blanche, Tillis said he had a “positive predisposition” towards the nominee.
Blanche has also faced general criticism about his personal relationship with Trump.
Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his term next year, said in an interview with CNN that he would oppose Blanche’s nomination if there was “even a whiff of a lack of independence” from the White House.
Democratic lawmakers are likely to seize on these concerns and hammer Blanche on his oversight of the fund, particularly over his refusal to say it is no longer being pursued in writing. They are also likely to push Blanche on his continued handling of the Epstein matter, another bipartisan flashpoint.
“Throughout his tenure at the Justice Department, Mr. Blanche has used the Department as a shield to protect the President and his MAGA allies and as a sword to attack his political opponents,” Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
Durbin said in a Monday post on social media that the Democratic witnesses in opposition to Blanche’s nomination would include Liz Oyer, a former US pardon lawyer who was fired by Blanche, and Dani Bensky, an Epstein survivor.
Ahead of the hearing, some Epstein survivors also appeared separately in a video urging lawmakers to reject Blanche’s nomination, criticizing the Justice Department for failing to redact victims’ information as part of the files. Blanche previously acknowledged that “mistakes were made” but argued that DOJ has moved expeditiously to correct any information unintentionally released.
If he succeeds in the committee, Blanche will have an equally thin margin in a full senate vote. Several additional Republican have scrutinized Blanche’s leadership, including Sen. Josh Hawley over the department’s failure to limit access to abortion pills by mail, as well as Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has challenged Blanche over the handling of the Epstein files.
Blanche can only lose four Republicans – three if Sen. Mitch McConnell is still absent and therefore can’t attend the vote.
But Trump’s agenda – and Blanche’s position – won’t necessarily falter even if his confirmation fails, as federal law says that the deputy attorney general can still lead the department while the top spot remains vacant.
And Blanche has promised fealty to the president regardless of his position: “If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say: ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir,’” Blanche said in his first days as acting attorney general.
Trump admin. tells court “anti-weaponization” fund is dead
0:36 • Source: CNN
Trump admin. tells court “anti-weaponization” fund is dead
0:36
While Blanche sits before the committee, his department continues to push forward on major legal fights across the country – and to face the wrath of several federal judges.
Several journalists from the New York Times are being forced to testify to a grand jury in New York over non-descript allegations of lawbreaking after the paper reported on security concerns involving Trump’s new Qatari-donated plane being used as Air Force One.
Those subpoenas, which are the second round sent to reporters who cover national security issues, are part of an escalation by the administration against independent news outlets. A spokesperson for the department has told CNN that the reporters themselves are not the target of criminal investigations.
Even so, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday that both the Defense and Justice Departments had established a joint taskforce to “identify and prosecute leakers.” Details on that task force, including its members and its purview, have not been clarified.
In Florida, prosecutors are still running a wide-ranging probe into former law enforcement and intelligence officials who scrutinized Trump during his 2016 campaign and first presidential term. Career DOJ officials have repeatedly told department leaders they don’t yet have a path to bring criminal charges in the investigation.
The department has also taken public actions to boost Trump’s false election-rigging claims. Blanche’s deputies at the department have attempted to subpoena information about 2020 election workers in Atlanta (though it was blocked in court last week) and to threaten criminal prosecution of election officials if they don’t do enough to keep non-citizens off the voter rolls.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Tierney Sneed, Holmes Lybrand and Alison Main contributed to this report.
