Confirmation hearings are underway for President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, his personal attorney Todd Blanche. Blanche is mired in a number of controversies, most notably his mishandling of the administration’s release of the Epstein files while serving as deputy attorney general under Pam Bondi. Washington state Representative Pramila Jayapal, who is co-sponsoring a bill to allow Epstein survivors whose identifying information was improperly publicized by the Department of Justice to sue the federal government for damages, says “Todd Blanche was responsible” for the breach. “He really wanted to discourage anyone else from coming forward with more information. … It’s [a] big reason why he shouldn’t be the attorney general.” Jayapal also discusses the Department of Justice’s surveillance of herself and other legislators who viewed Epstein-related documents and Blanche’s longstanding personal and professional connections with Trump.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.