In his lengthy opening statement, the committee’s top Democratic member, Dick Durbin, previewed a remarkable list of concerns among the panel’s Democratic members before Todd Blanche has even started his remarks.

Durbin said Blanche is participating in a “cover up of the Epstein files,” which Pam Bondi previously said Blanche was “in charge of.”

He also called on Blanche to produce any evidence that the “big lie” alleging the 2020 election was rigged against Donald Trump is “the truth or not the truth” after a series of judicial nominees refused to admit the president lost.

Durbin also said Blanche’s Justice Department “baselessly indicted” the Southern Poverty Law Center and launched a spurious case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which a federal judge said was “marked by a retaliatory taint.”

Durbin also said Blanche has refused to produce the Justice Department’s memorandum on Qatar gifting a new Air Force One.

Blanche, who had previously testified that he would say “I love you, sir” if Trump nominated someone else for the top job at the DOJ, should love the constitution and the country “more than any single president,” Durbin said.

The committee’s top Democratic member, Dick Durbin, reprimanded Todd Blanche for signing off on the “weaponization fund” for Trump allies, which Durbin called a “slush fund to benefit January 6 cop beaters while immunizing President Trump from liability.”

“You’ve refused to rescind the order creating this fund. The order can still be found on the Justice Department’s office,” he said.

Durbin met with Blanche yesterday, but Durbin said “I didn’t quite understand your explanation” about the fund, which has largely been blocked in court.

“You said it was up to Congress to codify the elimination of the fund … I hope you’ll clarify,” he said.

Blanche also said a recent order sanctioning Trump’s legal team over the so-called “settlement” with the IRS was a “hit piece” on the acting attorney general, according to Durbin.

The late Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly over the weekend, was a force on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

His desk on the panel is draped in black cloth with a vase of white roses as Blanche appears for his confirmation hearing.

Todd Blanche has arrived at the Senate Judiciary Committee, where chair Chuck Grassley is giving his opening remarks, to be followed by a statement from the committee’s top Democrat Dick Durbin.

Blanche will then deliver his opening statement.

Each senator on the panel will have 10 minutes to ask questions.

Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, is urging Senate Judiciary Committee leaders to reject Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, saying he “failed” in his handling of the Epstein files.

“Todd Blanche’s failed handling of the Epstein files and his personal involvement in moving Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security prison raises serious concerns about whether he is working for the American people or just protecting Donald Trump,” Garcia said in a statement Wednesday.

“The Attorney General’ job is to uphold the rule of law, not serve as the President’s personal lawyer. Blanche is unfit for the role, which is why we’re calling on the Senate to reject his nomination,” he said.

In his letter to Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley and ranking member Dick Durbin, Garcia wrote that Blanche “oversaw and implemented the White House coverup of the Epstein files” more than any other figure, and he “continues to withhold millions of documents from Congress and the American people.”

“He released information which put Epstein’s survivors in danger, while the names of Epstein associates and accomplices were and remain withheld,” Garcia wrote to the committee chiefs.

“No nominee with his record” should be confirmed to lead the Department of Justice, Garcia says.

Looking ahead to Blanche’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the ranking member of the panel’s House counterpart, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, has published a 15-point fact sheet arguing against his candidacy for attorney general.

Raskin writes that Blanche “has continued to act as Trump’s defense attorney, using the Department of Justice to go after the president’s enemies and reward his cronies and foot soldiers.”

You can read his objections in full here.

A federal judge is sanctioning Donald Trump’s legal team after finding that the president filed a dubious lawsuit against his own IRS for the sole purpose of forcing a settlement that bailed out Trump and his family from tax investigations.

That agreement was signed off by Todd Blanche.

A group of women who survived Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse has released a video calling on senators to vote against Todd Blanche’s candidacy to become the next attorney general over his alleged mishandling of the Epstein files.

In the clip published by the campaign group World Without Exploitation, the survivors state that their identities and personal information were disclosed in the files against their wishes, saying their privacy had been compromised and their safety put at risk and appealing to senators to vote against Blanche, whom they hold responsible for the blunders.

“Todd Blanche had a duty to protect us,” they say in the clip. “Instead, he protected the people who committed crimes against us.”

The survivors also express scorn for Blanche’s claim that there are “no investigative leads” for the DOJ to follow up, despite what they characterize as “a mountain of evidence” being made available about Epstein and his network of wealthy co-conspirators.

“He failed victims everywhere,” they contend. “Vote no on Todd Blanche for attorney general.”

Despite the president’s claim to the contrary, his AG nominee played a key role overseeing his so-called retribution campaign to target the president’s political enemies and investigate the prosecutors and officials who once investigated them, new emails show.

Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney and his nominee to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official, assigned senior Department of Justice officials to oversee politically loaded investigations into former special counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the prosecution of January 6 rioters and the 2020 presidential election, emails show.