NEWS: Durbin Directly Confronts Blanche About Epstein Files 'Cover-Up' At Senate Hearing

[0:02] Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. [0:05] Mr. Blanche, thank you for coming by my office yesterday. [0:08] I think we both knew going into that meeting that we had strongly held political beliefs on both sides of the table, [0:15] and yet we had, I think, a respectful exchange, and I thank you for coming by. [0:20] Thank you. [0:20] I'm glad you brought your staffers with you. [0:22] My staff was there as well. [0:24] If there was any misunderstanding, my representation of your remarks, you'll have a chance to correct the record in a few moments. [0:31] But I'll do my best to stick by what I said, and my staff has backed me up. [0:36] In my memory of it, yours may be different. [0:40] Thank you. [0:40] But thank you for meeting with me yesterday. [0:42] I want to acknowledge the obvious empty seat at the dais here, which is the chairman next to the chairman. [0:50] The committee is mourning the loss of our friend and colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham, former chairman and ranking member of this committee. [0:57] I served on the committee with Senator Graham since he joined the Senate in 2003. [1:01] I cherish my memories of both our fierce partisan battles and our landmark bipartisan agreements. [1:09] He was a trusted friend. [1:11] My friends and family back home can't believe it when I say these things. [1:15] You mean that Lindsey Graham? [1:16] Yes, I do. [1:18] He was a good person, a valuable part of the Senate family, and an extremely valuable part of this committee. [1:25] I'm glad that we're honoring him with this memorial today. [1:29] Let me say at the outset that the chairman spent several minutes talking about Jack Smith. [1:36] I want to make one thing clear about Jack Smith, who was a special counsel. [1:42] Months ago, perhaps six months ago, maybe longer, he volunteered to appear before this committee under oath and testify about what he did as special counsel and to answer the questions of the committee. [1:57] For reasons I cannot explain, the Republican majority does not want to bring Jack Smith before this committee and have him testify under oath. [2:05] They continue on a regular basis to take exception to things that he said or did or allegedly did, but will not bring him before this committee. [2:15] I don't get it. [2:16] If they have something they want to raise with Jack Smith, that place is where he should be sitting under oath and answering the questions, and he's volunteered to do it. [2:24] But they turned him down, Mr. Chairman, we are here today with the awesome responsibility of choosing the next attorney general of the United States of America. [2:36] We're here because there's a vacancy in the office. [2:38] The president decided to fire the predecessor of Mr. Blanche after just 14 months on the job, after courts and grand juries blocked her from prosecuting the president's political opponents. [2:53] Seemingly, President Trump believes you, Mr. Blanche, will be more successful. [2:59] When you were first nominated to be deputy attorney general, Democrats raised concerns about the president's personal attorney serving as the top attorney in the Justice Department. [3:11] The attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America. [3:16] Since you were confirmed, the Department of Justice has literally violated dozens of court orders to advance the president's agenda. [3:24] Last year, you declared that the Justice Department was, quote, at war with the federal judiciary. [3:32] I brought that up to you yesterday. [3:33] I believe all of us, both sides of the table, need to be more careful with our rhetoric when it comes to the judiciary. [3:42] Yesterday, we had the testimony of Justices Kagan and Barrett, and they talked about the impact on them personally and on their families with the threats that have been increasing against them physically. [3:54] Most of us on this side of the table know what they're talking about. [3:59] We have a similar experience. [4:01] But it is a responsibility of all of us, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, in or out of the government. [4:09] Be careful with what we say about the judiciary. [4:12] They are doing their job. [4:14] We should never, ever count this violence against anyone on either side. [4:19] One of your first official actions as acting attorney general, Mr. Blanche, was to establish the $2 billion weaponization or slush fund to benefit January 6 cop beaters while immunizing President Trump from IRS liability. [4:36] You defended the slush fund by claiming, quote, people hurt police get money, who hurt police get money all the time, end quote. [4:45] Despite resounding bipartisan criticism and admitting that it was a mistake, you've refused to rescind the order creating this fund. [4:55] That order can still be found on the Department of Justice's website today. [5:00] We talked about this yesterday in my office. [5:03] I didn't quite understand your explanation. [5:06] I'll give you a chance, of course, to explain it. [5:09] But you said it was up to Congress to codify the elimination of this fund. [5:14] And this was a creation of the executive branch. [5:18] It was not a creation of Congress. [5:20] So I hope you'll clarify that statement. [5:23] Earlier this week, a federal judge characterized your explanation of the settlement that led to this fund, quote, at best misleading and at worst disingenuous. [5:32] You told me yesterday that the opinion was, quote, a hit piece on you. [5:36] Another troubling attack on a judge for doing her job. [5:39] Then there's the cover-up of the Epstein files, which former Attorney General Bondi herself said you were, quote, in charge of. [5:48] Under your leadership, more than 1,000 FBI personnel were pulled off of other priorities and directed to flag Epstein records for any mentions of President Trump. [5:59] When scrutiny of the cover-up intensified, you participated in meetings in the White House Situation Room to strategize about how to protect President Trump, not Epstein survivors, the president. [6:12] When Congress forced the administration to release the files, hundreds of survivors' personal information was unredacted, victimizing them again. [6:21] Meanwhile, the names of powerful Epstein allies remain protected in clear violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. [6:32] Your explanation, quote, it isn't a crime to party with Mr. Epstein. [6:37] Mr. Blanche, these survivors deserve much better. [6:40] I want to recognize many of them who are in the audience today. [6:45] I thank them for their courage in speaking out. [6:48] Tomorrow, we will hear one of them during our outside witness panel. [6:51] I'd like to enter into the record six letters from Epstein survivors in opposition to the Blanche nomination. [6:58] Without objection, so ordered. [7:00] I'm asking you, Mr. Blanche, today, before you leave this room, to agree to meet with these Epstein survivors personally, [7:09] and to bring with you professionals from the Department of Justice to hear them out. [7:13] They have the courage to tell their story, and they should at least hear from their government that they take it seriously. [7:20] After your interview with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, an attempt, I believe, to exonerate President Trump, [7:29] Ms. Maxwell was transferred to a minimum security camp. [7:32] That is unheard of for offenders like her. [7:35] You said it was for her own personal safety. [7:37] I hope you'll explain that today. [7:40] You told me yesterday you want to be Attorney General because you love the Department of Justice, [7:43] and you love prosecutors, but you have removed from the Department some of the most effective prosecutors [7:50] that have ever served our government. [7:53] Done that for personal reasons, purging career law enforcement officials [7:57] who won't prioritize President Trump's interests over their oath to the Constitution. [8:03] You fired the career pardon attorney because she wouldn't sign off on restoring gun rights [8:09] to a convicted domestic abuser, Mel Gibson, personal friend of President Trump. [8:14] You fired career immigration litigator Erez Reunivi for refusing to follow unethical orders [8:22] from your former law partner, Emil Bove, and other senior DOJ officials to lie to a federal court. [8:29] You bragged about firing career law enforcement professionals simply because they were assigned [8:34] to investigate the president's criminal misconduct, including FBI agents who specialized [8:40] in investigating threats from foreign adversaries like Iran. [8:43] More than 1,200 former career DOJ employees who worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations [8:51] sent this committee a letter opposing your nomination because you have purged DOJ of thousands [8:57] of experienced law enforcement officials putting our nation's security at risk. [9:01] I would like to enter this letter into the record with unanimous consent. [9:06] Without objections to order. [9:09] You testified under oath last year that as Deputy Attorney General, you would consult [9:12] with career ethics officials to avoid conflicts of interest, a significant concern since you received [9:18] nearly $10 million as a president's personal attorney. [9:22] But you've gutted the DOJ offices that handle ethics and professional responsibility. [9:27] After the department's top career ethics lawyer advised you to recuse yourself from any matters [9:33] relating to Trump and his personal capacity, that lawyer was fired. [9:37] Every smarmy suspect deal in this administration has cryptocurrency behind the curtain. [9:45] And again, it has happened when it comes to the billion dollar windfall that went to the president [9:50] in his first year in office. [9:52] Shortly after you were confirmed as Deputy Attorney General, you issued an order dismantling DOJ's [9:58] crypto enforcement team and shutting down ongoing criminal investigations of the crypto industry. [10:04] At the time, you owned at least $159,000 worth of crypto related assets. [10:10] While you eventually divested, those assets didn't go far. [10:14] You simply transferred them to your child, your children and grandchild. [10:18] With the crypto enforcement unit out of the way, President Trump brought in $1.4 billion [10:24] from his family's cryptocurrency business in 2025 alone. [10:29] Take that one. [10:30] Take one example of the dealing in the administration. [10:34] In April 2024, the founder of the crypto company Binance was sentenced to prison in order to pay [10:42] $50 million fine for a money laundering scheme. [10:46] $50 million fine. [10:48] He then brokered a deal to channel $2 billion into the Trump family's crypto business, [10:54] World Liberty Finance, after which President Trump pardoned him. [11:00] Binance accounts have funneled about $1.7 billion to Iranian entities linked to terrorism. [11:08] The President's World Liberty Financial continues to partner with Binance, even with these facts [11:14] that I've spelled out in this statement. [11:16] You recently claimed, quote, Mr. Blanche, that there's a ton of evidence that the 2020 election [11:24] was rigged. [11:26] You should see what happens in this committee room when judicial nominees of this administration [11:31] appear before this committee. [11:33] Raise their hands, take the oath, and then field the questions asked by members of the committee. [11:39] You'll see some of the people who are even judges today at state level and have distinguished careers [11:45] in law start to avert their eyes, squirm, and then give a script which doesn't acknowledge the obvious. [11:54] Donald Trump lost the 2020 election by 7 million popular votes, and he lost by that number. [12:05] That's a fact. [12:06] Any eighth grader in America knows it and can repeat it for you. [12:09] And yet when it comes down to asking Trump judicial nominees who won the 2020 election, [12:15] you ought to see him squirm. [12:17] What's the reason? [12:18] The president's big lie. [12:20] He believes in his heart of hearts that he somehow won that election, [12:24] that we can't produce any evidence of that fact. [12:27] Well, we'll give you your chance. [12:28] I hope that you produce the evidence to show one way or the other that the big lie is the truth [12:34] or not the truth. [12:36] Your first indictment of former FBI Director Comey failed in a case brought by an unqualified [12:41] and unlawfully appointed U.S. Attorney, Lindsey Halligan. [12:45] So now Mr. Comey is being prosecuted for taking pictures of seashells. [12:51] This prosecution personally ordered by the president, who despises Mr. Comey for overseeing [12:57] the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. [13:01] You have also baselessly indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization [13:06] that has worked tirelessly to expose violent extremists like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, [13:13] a group which we in the Senate know well for their January 6th escapade. [13:18] The same people you gave a clean slate for their role in attacking this Capitol. [13:23] A federal judge recently singled out your, quote, remarkable statements targeting Kilmer [13:29] Abrego Garcia as evidence that his criminal prosecution was, quote, [13:34] marked by a retaliatory taint for successfully fighting his deportation. [13:40] And despite my repeated request, you've yet to produce the DOJ memorandum, concluding that [13:45] it was legally permissible for the president of the United States to accept a gift of a luxury airliner [13:52] from the royal family of Qatar, despite constitutional and statutory foreign gift prohibitions. [13:59] Earlier this month, that jet was launched as Air Force One, despite credible reports of security [14:05] vulnerability. Last weekend, the Department of Justice responded not by addressing these concerns, [14:10] but by sending federal agents with subpoenas to the homes of the reporters who exposed these lapses. [14:17] In less than 18 months at the Department of Justice, you've shown you're still President Trump's [14:22] personal attorney. Your tenure can be summed up in the four words you said, quote, [14:27] I love you, sir, to President Trump. This was your response when you asked what you would say to him. [14:33] This nation deserves an attorney general who loves the Constitution more than any single president, [14:38] an attorney general focused on keeping America safe and combating corruption, not satisfying the [14:44] president's personal grievances or channeling crypto cash to the administration's mega faithful. [14:51] Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, I yield.