WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing approaches, the record shows he’s running the Justice Department for his personal client, Donald Trump. Since becoming Deputy Attorney General, Blanche has seized personal control of the Epstein investigation, pushed career prosecutors aside, and coordinated with senior White House officials to help keep the files buried.
As the Senate weighs Blanche’s nomination, his record raises an unavoidable question: is the nation’s top law enforcement officer investigating the Epstein files, or is he helping bury them for Trump?
Here’s what the record shows:
Blanche Never Should Have Been Anywhere Near the Epstein Files in the First Place. Within two weeks of his confirmation as Deputy Attorney General, DOJ’s top ethics lawyer personally briefed Blanche that his history as Trump’s personal lawyer required him to recuse from matters involving Trump in his personal capacity. Blanche signed a formal pledge to do so, then took command of the Epstein investigation anyway. The DOJ has yet to release documentation confirming Blanche actually complied and refuses to specify which matters he recused himself from.
Blanche Personally Took Over the Ghislaine Maxwell Interview While Maxwell’s Own Lawyer Was a Close Friend of His. After the DOJ closed its Epstein investigation without charging anyone, Blanche personally conducted two days of interviews with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, excluding the prosecutors who had built the case against her. Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, is a close personal friend of Blanche’s who had previously hosted him on his podcast and praised his work. The interviews took place just two weeks after the DOJ fired the ethics official who had warned Blanche about his conflicts of interest.
Blanche Spent Months Joining Top Trump Officials in Secret Situation Room Meetings to Bury the Epstein Files. According to The New York Times, Blanche spent months in 2025 participating in Situation Room meetings with the Vice President, the White House Chief of Staff, and the FBI Director to keep Trump’s Epstein ties out of public view.
Pam Bondi Says Blanche Was Running the Show on Releasing the Epstein Files. According to a transcript released in June of her closed-door House Oversight Committee testimony, former Attorney General Pam Bondi told lawmakers Blanche was “in charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files.”
Blanche Declared the Epstein Files Review “Over” While Millions of Documents Stayed Hidden. In February 2026, Blanche announced the DOJ’s Epstein document review was “effectively over,” even though millions of documents remained unreleased, including victim interviews and material from Epstein’s own computers.
Blanche Went on Fox News and Said Partying With Epstein Wasn’t a Crime. Two days after declaring the review over, Blanche appeared on Fox News and said twice that “it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.” He also reassured viewers that Trump’s appearances in the files came from secondhand articles.
Blanche Stonewalled Congress on Epstein, Prompting Democrats to Walk Out of a Closed-Door Briefing He Requested. In March 2026, Blanche and Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before the House Oversight Committee for a closed-door briefing they had requested. Every Democratic member walked out within thirty minutes.
Blanche Dismissed Trump’s 1,800-Plus Appearances in the Epstein Files as Not Worth Investigating. Blanche has repeatedly argued that Trump’s name appearing more than 1,800 times in the Epstein database reflected only secondhand articles and anonymous tips that were “not something that can be really investigated.” Despite these public dismissals, only 10 percent of Americans say the Trump administration has helped hold Epstein’s associates accountable, according to a June 2026 Reuters/Ipsos poll.