Booker Statement on Judiciary Committee’s Vote to Advance Todd Blanche’s Nomination for Attorney General

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member of the Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights Subcommittee, issued the following statement after the Committee voted to advance Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General:

"Today, the Judiciary Committee advanced a nominee for Attorney General who has made his loyalties clear - and they aren't to the American people.

"Todd Blanche's record speaks for itself: he has shown neither independence nor integrity, and he is unfit to serve as our nation's chief law enforcement officer. His only qualification is his unwavering loyalty to President Trump and his political allies - at the expense of the American people and the mission of the office he is charged to uphold.

"The Judiciary Committee has advanced a nominee whose motives are plain for the world to see: he is willing to subordinate justice to serve one man, at the peril of everyone else. Don't take my word for it - listen to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, his former DOJ colleagues, and legal experts across both parties.

"Todd Blanche engineered a $1.776 billion slush fund to reward the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6, on behalf of his forever-client, Donald Trump. This is a man who refused to meet with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell survivors until a Republican colleague threatened to withhold his vote.

"And when he finally did meet with the survivors, they described the encounter as demoralizing, condescending, and gaslighting - a meeting where their voices were minimized and their pain dismissed.

"Todd Blanche couldn't find time for survivors, yet made time to travel to Florida to meet with a convicted child sex trafficker for the specific purpose of extracting testimony to exonerate Donald Trump after his name appeared in the Epstein files hundreds of times. convicted child sex trafficker. Days later, he rewarded her with a transfer to the federal government's lowest-security prison camp-a facility where people convicted of child sex crimes are not even permitted to be housed.

"A vote for Todd Blanche is a vote to co-sign a collusive settlement and immunity deal, to applaud retaliation against career prosecutors and public servants, to reward the stonewalling of survivors, and to subordinate the rule of law to one man's personal and political interests.

"The American people are watching, and they will remember this vote.

"I will continue to use every oversight tool available to hold Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice accountable - to insist on transparency, to defend the independence of career prosecutors, and to fight for the principles of justice, fairness, and the rule of law that our democracy depends on."