WASHINGTON – Tomorrow, Donald Trump’s Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears before Congress. Blanche spent years as Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney before being appointed Deputy Attorney General and, after Pam Bondi’s firing, Acting Attorney General.
Under his watch, the Trump administration has continued weaponizing the DOJ to protect the President and advance his vindictive agenda. Blanche has overseen the dismantling of prosecutorial independence, the retaliatory targeting of the President’s perceived political opponents, and defiance of Congress’s mandate to release the Jeffrey Epstein documents. Americans deserve to know: does their top law enforcement officer serve justice — or Donald Trump?
Here are 12 questions the American people deserve answers to:
- In July 2025, you personally interviewed convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell under limited immunity. The transcript shows Maxwell repeatedly stating that Donald Trump never acted inappropriately, providing political cover for the President. Maxwell was then transferred to a minimum-security facility. What was the investigative purpose of that interview? Who authorized the limited immunity grant and the prison transfer?
- You have close personal ties to Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense attorney, yet you personally interviewed Maxwell and now oversee the DOJ’s Epstein document review as Acting Attorney General. Did you seek a conflict-of-interest review before taking Epstein-related action? Did you recuse yourself from any decisions?
- Congress passed a bipartisan law requiring full release of the Epstein documents by December 19, 2025. The DOJ missed that deadline and remains out of compliance: more than two million documents remain unreleased, and the DOJ removed 47,000 previously published files. The DOJ Inspector General launched a formal compliance audit in April. What specific steps have you taken since assuming office to bring the Justice Department into compliance?
- You spent years defending Donald Trump in his federal criminal cases: the classified documents case and the January 6th election obstruction case. Before becoming Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General. DOJ ethics officials advised you to recuse yourself from Trump-related matters, but you did not. How can you exercise independent judgment as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer after years protecting your most powerful client from federal prosecution? Why did you reject the ethics officials’ recusal recommendation?
- Under your leadership, the DOJ has used federal law enforcement pressure against law firms and attorneys representing perceived political opponents of the administration. What legal authority justifies punishing private attorneys based on their clients? How is this not retaliation?
- In April 2026, the DOJ asked a federal appeals court to vacate the January 6 convictions of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders. This occurred despite Trump having already pardoned or commuted their sentences. Which vacatur requests did you personally authorize or review, and did any career prosecutors object?
- Career DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni was fired for refusing to sign a factually and legally false brief in federal court. Over 4,300 attorneys signed a letter warning that legal independence at the DOJ was collapsing. How many career attorneys have been terminated, forced out, or reassigned since you took office for refusing directives they believed violated their professional obligations?
- Under your predecessor, the DOJ launched at least 19 investigations and prosecutions targeting Trump critics, including former Special Counsel Jack Smith, Senator Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. That retaliation campaign has continued under your leadership. Which of those investigations did you personally review or approve? Can you name a single investigation your Department has opened that runs counter to Donald Trump’s personal or political interests?
- The DOJ pressured Minnesota officials to hand over private voter registration data and authorized an FBI seizure of over 650 boxes of election records from Fulton County, Georgia. These actions occurred under both your predecessor and your leadership. Who ordered these operations, what legal authority justified them, and have you taken any steps to review or reverse them since taking office?
- In January 2026, federal agents killed Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Independent FBI civil rights investigations were blocked and six prosecutors resigned in protest. You announced a DOJ Civil Rights Division investigation into Pretti’s death. Yet the Division’s experienced career prosecutors were excluded entirely from the probe, and the DOJ has also declined to open a federal civil rights investigation into Good’s death. Why were the Civil Rights Division’s excessive force specialists excluded from investigating Pretti’s death? Why has no investigation been opened into Good’s death? And what accountability mechanisms exist for the federal agents responsible?
- Your Department just announced a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded settlement fund from President Trump’s dropped $10 billion IRS lawsuit. A commission you appointed will direct payments through December 2028 – days before a new president takes office. Who determined the eligibility criteria? What safeguards prevent this fund from rewarding the president’s political allies? And how is it appropriate for you – the president’s former personal defense attorney – to administer a fund settling a lawsuit your own department was supposed to defend against?
- On April 21, your Department obtained an indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a 55-year-old civil rights organization. The former head of the DOJ Fraud Section stated the indictment fails to meet the Department’s own standards for bringing charges. Did career prosecutors evaluate this case against the required threshold? Did any object? How is this not weaponizing the DOJ against the president’s perceived political enemies?