Blanche says he's not a 'yes man' as he faces criticism over Trump loyalty

By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche, faced tense bipartisan questioning at a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday about the rollout of the Epstein files and a settlement that gave the president sweeping tax immunity.

Blanche, the president's former personal lawyer, was pressed by Republican Senator John Cornyn of ‌Texas about the Justice Department's decision to settle Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service by creating a since-abandoned $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump allies for alleged prior government mistreatment, ‌along with an associated order shielding Trump and his family businesses from facing tax audits over prior conduct.

Blanche, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, deemed the planned fund "dead," but acknowledged the underlying settlement had not been formally rescinded. He said Trump's lawyers would have ​to go to court to enforce the settlement, something Blanche said they had no plans to do.

He defended the tax portion of the deal as standard practice in IRS settlements, though tax experts have described the immunity for Trump as highly unusual.

Cornyn told reporters during a hearing break that Blanche's answers did not assuage his concerns about the fund and did not yet get him to a yes vote. He said he would wait to make a decision until he has to make a vote.

"The argument was that the weaponization fund was dead," he said. "What he confirmed is that it's not." He added: "I continue to have some concerns."

Blanche, who would ‌need nearly unanimous Republican support in a closely divided Senate, won praise ⁠from most Republicans on the panel, including Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has sharply criticized the "anti-weaponization" fund.

Blanche sought to create some distance with Trump, saying federal judges should not be impeached for ruling against Trump administration policies and acknowledging that people who assaulted police during the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol ⁠should have been prosecuted. Trump pardoned nearly all convicted of taking part in the riot.

"President Trump trusts me to give him counsel," Blanche told Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. "Counsel does not mean I'm a yes man."

But Blanche, who has been serving as acting attorney general, also defended Trump's right to issue the pardons.

"I am not celebrating that," he said. "It is a fact."

Blanche in his opening statement touted his record reducing violent crime and combating fraud in ​public ​benefits programs. He also defended efforts to correct what he described as past wrongdoing by the Biden administration, when the ​Justice Department brought two criminal prosecutions of Trump.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Republican Chuck Grassley ‌in his opening statement praised Blanche for reducing violent crime while criticizing Democrats for trying to derail Blanche's nomination. "They won't talk about these successes," Grassley said.

The Justice Department's rollout of investigative files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which Blanche oversaw as the DOJ's second-in-command, was also a central topic of questioning. Advocates for Epstein's victims have opposed Blanche over what they contend was a botched release of the files that exposed some victims' identities.

Blanche took responsibility for mistakes in the release of the files and said the DOJ was prepared to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct by anyone else associated with Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. But Blanche declined to commit to meeting with Epstein victims, saying others in the Justice Department and FBI were better positioned.

"If we learn today, if we learn ‌next week, if we learn next month that there's an individual that we can investigate, indict and prosecute out ​of the Epstein files, you better believe we will," Blanche said.

CRITICISM OVER WEAPONIZATION FUND

Senators in Trump's Republican Party lambasted Blanche over ​the "anti-weaponization fund" only weeks ago and the backlash sparked questions about whether Blanche could win ​confirmation to the attorney general post.

The deal immediately drew allegations of self-dealing. A federal judge concluded on Monday that Trump and lawyers in his administration improperly used the ‌case to benefit the president and his allies and referred lawyers involved, including ​Blanche, to state bar authorities to investigate any legal ​ethics violations.

Democrats have assailed Blanche, arguing he has acted as Trump's personal defender at the expense of protecting the public interest. More than 1,200 former DOJ staffers have signed a letter opposing him.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after a meeting with Blanche, Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said the attorney general nominee told him the weaponization fund was ​a "mistake" and he did not want to see it go forward.

"In less ‌than 18 months at the Department of Justice, you have shown you are, first and foremost, still President Trump's personal attorney," Durbin said on Wednesday.

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana asked ​Blanche if he and Trump were friends.

"I'm his lawyer," Blanche said, before quickly correcting himself, "was his lawyer. Now, I'm the deputy attorney general."

(Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Andrew Goudsward. ​Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and David Morgan; Editing by Alistair Bell, Mark Porter and Chris Reese)