Hearings to examine the nomination of Todd Blanche, of Florida, to be Attorney General.

Welcome everybody to this hearing when we consider Todd Blanch's nomination to serve as the eighty-eighth Attorney General of the United States. Congratulations, Mr. Blanch, on your appointment.

Thank you, Chairman.

Uh These are the ground rules for this meeting. I'll handle this hearing as our committee handled the nominations of Attorneys General Bondi and Garland. I want everyone to be able to watch without obstruction. If people block the view of those behind them or speak out of turn it's not fair. It's not considerate, so officers will immediately remove that person or persons. Uh, I'm going to give my opening remarks and then ranking member Durbin will give his remarks. Then I'll call on Senator Moody to introduce the nominee. Following that introduction, will provide his opening statement. And then we'll we'll turn to questions. Each senator will have ten minutes to ask questions. My s- my standard approach has been that if you got one second left as a member of the committee you can ask your question. But After the questions answered, I'm gonna move on to the next member. Mister Blanch, thank you for being here. As I've said before, this is one of the most important offices in our country. You went through a rough senate confirmation a little over a year ago, so you know all about it. I appreciate that you cooperated with this committee. every step and fulfilled your responsibilities in good faith while simultaneously running the world's uh largest lawful office. The Senate has already judged your fitness for high office and confirmed you as the department's second in command. Today we consider you for a promotion. And we're not starting out from a blank slate. you have a track record. My democratic colleagues have relentlessly attacked the department, and your and President Trump's leadership. They've called the department, quote unquote, a disgrace, and suggested the agency is broken. Their media allies and activist networks have echoed that message. Are these assertions correct? Let's put aside partisan criticism for a moment and address the evidence. The department's primary duty is to enforce our nation's laws and to keep Americans safe. So how is the department stacking up? The answer is, for those who care to judge firmal- fairly, It's a record of success. The United States has the lowest murder rate since nineteen hundred. The FBI has captured eight of the top ten most wanted fugitives. Violent crime arrests by arrests by the FBI are up a hundred and eighty four percent. More than eight hundred and forty nine individuals have been disrupted from conducting terrorist attacks. The ATF has seized more than forty- four thousand illegal firearms. That is not a failure. What about the department's record on illegal drugs? Since January of last year, the DEA has made more than sixty-three hundred fentanyl arrests. it has it has seized more than five thousand kilograms of fentanyl powder fifty five million fentanyl pills twenty two hundred and forty thousand kilograms of methamphetamine and one and two tenths million kilograms of cocaine The fentanyl alone amounts to more than four hundred and twenty eight million fatal seizures. That is not a failure. And what about protecting children? Our committee has fought for years on a bipartisan basis to protect our nation's children from the horrors of exploitation. Ranking member Durbin and I, in a bipartisan way, our leading landmark legislation the james t woods act to tackle that very issue and once again our partners at the justice department have a record of success the fbi has arrested twenty nine hundred child predators and human traffickers a seventy percent increase from twenty twenty four and located more than thousand nine hundred and forty child victims. The US Marshals have recovered more than one thousand one hundred and eighty-two missing children that doesn't sound like failure to me in contrast the Biden administration diverted prosecutors from child sex crime cases on January six cases that is unbelievable. My democrat colleagues have criticized the Justice Department for a lack of transparency. I've been critical as well as I am with every administration. Whoever occupies the oval office, when we don't get that cooperation, no one cares more about oversight than I do in all my years of congressional oversight. This department has been the most responsive to my requests. That means every Republican or Democrat administration previous to this one. And the numbers back this up. Since January of last year, the department has produced approximately forty-three thousand pages of records in response to requests from the Senate and the House. To put that in perspective, that's a approximately three times the number of records produced in a equivalent time by the biden justice department the department has also released more than three and three tenths million pages of additional records with more coming every day their work is not done and i expect continued responsiveness and as well the very important thing of declassification But credit should be given where credit is due. A few more successes. They've established the National Fraud Enforcement Division to address more than five billion dollars in fraud against American taxpayers. They've reduced the immigration case log by more than four hundred sixty-eight thousand. They've challenged and eliminated racist and unlawful discrimination in government and the private sector. They're exposing and readdressing the Biden era weaponization of the department against political opponents. They've captured and are prosecuting the dictator Nicholas Maduro for crimes related to narco-terrorism. The list goes on. This department is keeping Americans safe, and the numbers back that up. Mister Blanche, you should take pride in delivering the law enforcement promise the American people voted for in twenty twenty four. But at the hearing today, we might expect the opposite. My democratic colleagues will talk about uh these uh they won't talk about these successes. I expect the same playbook that we've seen for nearly every one of President Trump's nominees, pure partisan obstruction and partisan attack. This approach is the same one that we've seen over and over. In fact, it becomes such a pattern that I'll just quote myself from a speech I delivered almost a year ago regarding another nominee. Last July I said quote, " since the very beginning of this Congress, Democrats have engaged in relentless obstruction campaign for nearly every one of President Trump's nominees. Their playbook has included maximum procedural obstruction, unfair media attacks, repeated attempts to allege misconduct and demands for delayed consideration, records and investigations. like clockwork, just before a hearing or a vote, we get another breathless accusation that one of President Trump's nominees needs to be investigated, the end of my quote of last January. So here we are again, just like clockwork, the Democrats and their media allies and activist networks have launched the expected crusade against your nomination. To be clear, there are fair questions for Mister Blanch. I don't agree with how Mister Blanch or the Justice Department has handled every matter and I've demanded answers and will continue to do so. But many of the criticisms aired in recent days just completely miss the mark, and I'll give one example. We've seen a coordinated campaign from former Justice Department employees opposing blanchish nomination by democratic colleagues in the partisan media, have publicized their letter framing the signators as a group of non-partisan, quote unquote, career civil servants. Of course, they failed to mention in that letter was coordinated by the same group that engaged in partisan and misleading campaigns opposing judge bovey's nomination. They also don't mention that the letter's signatures include a who's who of partisan activists including former chicago mayor laurie lightfoot and jack smith's partisan prosecutors j p cooney molly gust gustin and david rody. And they certainly don't mention that mister planch has received letters of support from organizations representing more than six hundred thousand law enforcement officers, twenty-three state attorneys general, and scores of former justice department officials. So, from my vantage point, if the people who engaged in in the worst partisan law affair law affair this country has ever seen, have a problem with Todd Blanch, uh that's a good thing. in my book. As sure as sunrise. Today, some of my democrat colleagues will tell us that Mister Branch has uniquely uniquely terrible nominee. Before they do so, however, I urge them to remember the boy who cried wolf and take a long look in the mirror before lecturing anyone about partisanship at the Justice Department. So I have one more subject I'd like to discuss developments in my and Senator Johnson's Jack Smith investigation. Smith's team subpoenaed the National Archives June twenty twenty three. That subpoena sought text messages from cell phones connected to Trump's White House staffers. The date range for the records was october one twenty twenty to january twentieth twenty twenty one the archives then general counsel gary stern emailed thomas windham one of smith's deputies on august twenty first twenty twenty three at twelve nineteen p m that email said responsive records were ready on august twenty one the same day twenty twenty three just uh twenty seconds later windham had already downloaded the text and shortly after that other doj and fbi personnel involved in the case did as well whistleblowers told my office that smith didn't pass these records to a filter team and you can see in twenty minutes it wasn't time to go to a filter team, that filter team was already in place. The Justice Department has confirmed that fact in a letter to the committee, quote, the special counsel's investigative team apparently bypassed the filter team, and directly accessed these text messages, end of quote. The DOJ letter to the committee also said, quote, the special counsel's office had previously been made aware of the risks that records relating to members meaning members of congress communications could raise constitutional questions and might be privileged under the speech and and debate clause end of quote that speech and debate clause is a constitutional issue even if smith's team had been instructed to look for congressional or other privileged information It wouldn't matter, because in this example, it appears the filter team was entirely bypassed. Based on the information provided to the committee, Smith's operation cut corners and blew through constitutional stop signs, instead of respecting them and having been advised about the constitutional problems. The White House messages obtained and reviewed by Smith's team included communications with many senators and representatives. The communications included messages with members on this committee, including this senator. The subject matter of those members' communication included core constitutional responsibilities, such as congressional legislation, resolutions, and investigative work. It also included other information irrelevant to Jack Smith's case against then-citizen Trump. Instead of that information being walled off, it was intentionally shared. This is another example how this misguided investigation wasn't normal and demands further investigation. Jack Smith's operation was a runaway political train that improperly obtained congressional information. I've requested Acting Attorney General Blanch to allow members to review these records. Senator Gerben.

Thank you very much, Mister Chairman. Uh, Mister Blanch, thank you for coming by my office yesterday. Uh, I think we both knew going into that meeting that we had strongly held political beliefs on both sides of the table. And yet we had, I think, a a respectful exchange and I thank you for coming by.

Thank you.

Uh, I'm glad you brought your staffers with you. My staff was there as well. If there was any misunderstanding uh my representation of your remarks, you'll have a chance to correct the record uh in a few moments. But I'll do my best to stick by what I said and as my staff has backed me up and in my memory of it, yours may be different. But thank you for meeting with me yesterday.

Thank you.

I wanna acknowledge uh the obvious empty seat at the dais here, which the chairman's uh next to the chairman. The committee is mourning the loss of our friend and colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham. former chairman and ranking member of this committee. I served on the committee with Senator Graham since he joined the Senate in two thousand three. I'm gonna cherish my memories of both our fierce partisan battles and our landmark bipartisan agreements. He was a trusted friend. My my friends and family back home can't believe it when I say these things. You mean that, Lindsey Graham? Yes, I do. He was a good person, a valuable part of the Senate family, and a extremely valuable part of this committee. Uh, I'm glad that we're honoring him with this, uh, memorial today. Uh, let me say at the outset that the chairman, uh, has spent several minutes talking about Jack Smith. I wanna make one thing clear about Jack Smith, who was the special counsel. Months ago, perhaps six months ago, maybe longer, he volunteered to appear before this committee under oath and testify about what he did as special counsel, and to answer the questions of the committee. For reasons I cannot explain, the Republican majority does not wanna bring Jack Smith before this committee and have him testify under oath. They continue on regular basis to take exception to things that he said or did or allegedly did, but will not bring him before this committee. I don't get it. If they have something they wanna raise with Jack Smith, That place is where he should be sitting, under oath and answering the questions, and he's volunteered to do it. But they turned him down. Mister uh Chairman, we are here today with uh awesome responsibility of choosing the next Attorney General of the United States of America. We're here because there's a vacancy in the office, the President decided uh to fire the predecessor uh of of uh Mister Blanch after just fourteen months on the job. After courts and grand juries blocked her from prosecuting the president's political opponents. Seemingly, President Trump believes you, mister Blanch, will be more successful. When you were first nominated to be Deputy Attorney General, Democrats raised concerns about the president's personal attorney serving as the top attorney in the Justice Department. The Attorney General is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the United States of America. Since you were confirmed, the Department of Justice has literally violated dozens of court orders to advance the President's agenda. Last year, you declared that the Justice Department was " at war" with the federal judiciary. I brought that up to you yesterday. I believe all of us, both sides of the table, need to be more careful with our rhetoric when it comes to the judiciary. Yesterday we had the testimony of Justices Kagan and Barrett. And they talked about the impact on them personally and on their families, with the threats that have been increasing against them physically. Most of us on this side of the table know what they're talking about. We have a similar experience. But it is a b- responsibility of all of us, Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives, in or out of the government, be careful with what we say about the judiciary. They are doing their job. we should never, ever countenance violence against anyone on either side. One of your first official actions as Acting Attorney General, uh, Mister Blanch, was to establish the two billion dollar weaponization or slush fund, to benefit January sixth cop beaters, while immunizing President Trump from IRS liability. You defended the slush fund by claiming quote, people hurt police, get money, who hurt police, get money all the time." End quote. Despite resounding bipartisan criticism and admitting that it was a mistake, you've refused to resend the order creating this fund. That order can still be found on the Department of Justice's web site today. We talked about this yesterday in my office. I I didn't quite understand your explanation. I'll give you a chance of course to explain it. But you said it was up to Congress to codify the elimination of this fund. This was a creation of the executive branch, it was not a creation of Congress. So I I hope you'll clarify that statement. Earlier this week a federal judge characterized your explanation of the settlement that led to this fund quote, "at best misleading and at worst disingenuous." You told me yesterday that the opinion was quote " a hit piece on you", another troubling attack on a judge for doing her job. Then there's the cover-up of the Epstein files, which former Attorney General Bondi herself said you were quote " in charge of". Under your leadership, more than one thousand FBI personnel were pulled off of other priorities

After more than

and directed to flag Epstein records uh for any mentions of President Trump. When scrutiny of the cover-up intensified, you participated in meetings in the White House Situation Room to strategize about how to protect President Trump. not Epstein's survivors, the president. When Congress forced the administration to release the files, hundreds of survivors' personal information was unredacted, victimizing them again. Meanwhile, the names of powerful Epstein allies remained protected in clear violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Your explanation, quote, "it isn't a crime to party with Mr. Epstein." Mister Blanch, these survivors deserve much better. I wanna recognize many of them who are in the audience today. I thank them for their courage in speaking out. Tomorrow we will hear one of them during our outside witness panel. I'd like to enter into the record six letters from Epstein's survivors, in opposition to the Blanch nomination.

Without objection, so ordered.

I'm asking you, Mister Blanch, today, before you leave this room. to agree to meet with these epstein survivors personally and to bring with you professionals from the department of justice to hear them out they have the courage to tell their story and they should at least hear from their government that it they take it seriously after your interview with convicted sex trafficker galene maxwell an attempt i believe to exonerate president trump miss maxwell was transferred to a minimum security camp that is unheard of for offenders like her. You said it was for her own personal safety. I hope you'll explain that today. You told me yesterday you wanna be Attorney General because you love the Department of Justice, and you love prosecutors. But you have removed from the department some of the most effective prosecutors that have ever served our government. Done that for personal reasons, purging career law enforcement officials who won't prioritize President Trump's interests. over their oath to the constitution. You fired the career pardoned attorney because she wouldn't sign off on restoring gun rights to a convicted domestic abuser, Mel Gibson, personal friend of President Trump. You fired career immigration litigator, Erez Runeby, for refusing to follow unethical orders from your former law partner, Emil Bove, and other senior DOJ officials to lie to a federal court. You bragged about firing career law enforcement professionals simply because they were assigned to investigate the president's criminal misconduct, including FBI agents who specialized in investigating threats from foreign adversaries like Iran. More than twelve hundred former career DOJ employees, who worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations, sent this committee a letter opposing your nomination because you have purged DOJ of thousands of experienced law enforcement officials. putting our nation's security at risk. I would like to enter this letter into the record with the US consent.

Without objection, so ordered.

You testified under oath last year that as Deputy Attorney General, you would consult with career ethics officials to avoid conflicts of interest. A significant concern since you received nearly ten million dollars as the President's personal attorney. But you've gutted the DOJ offices that handle ethics and professional responsibility. After the department's top career ethics lawyer advised you to recuse yourself from any matters relating to Trump and his personal capacity, that lawyer was fired. Every smarmy, suspect deal in this administration has cryptocurrency behind the curtain. And again it has happened, when it comes to the billion dollar windfall that went to the president in his first year in office. Shortly after you were confirmed as deputy attorney general, you issued an order Dismantling DOJ's crypto enforcement team. And shutting down ongoing criminal investigations in the crypto industry. At the time you owned at least a hundred and fifty nine thousand dollars worth of crypto related assets. While you eventually divested those assets didn't go far. You simply transferred them to your child, your children and grandchild. With the crypto enforcement unit out of the way. President Trump brought in one point four billion dollars. from his family's cryptocurrency business in twenty twenty five alone. Take that one, take one example of the dealing in the administration. In April, twenty twenty four, the founder of the crypto company Binance was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay fifty million dollar fine for a money laundering scheme. Fifty million dollar fine. He then brokered a deal to channel two billion dollars into the Trump family's crypto business, World Liberty Finance, after which President Trump pardoned him. Binance accounts have funneled about one point seven billion dollars to Iranian entities linked to terrorism. The president's World Liberty Financial continues to partner with Binance, even with these uh facts that I've spelled out in this statement. He recently claimed quote, Mr. uh Blanche, that there's a ton of evidence that the twenty twenty election was rigged. You should see what happens in this committee room, when judicial nominees of this administration appear before this committee, raise their hands, take the oath, and and then feel the questions asked by members of the committee. You'll see some of the people who are even judges today at state level, and have distinguished careers in law, start to avert their eyes, squirm, and then give a script which doesn't acknowledge the obvious. Donald Trump lost the twenty twenty election by seven million popular eh votes. Seven million votes popular, and he lost by that number. That's a fact. Any eighth grader in America knows it and can repeat it for you. And yet when it comes down to asking Trump judicial nominees who won the twenty twenty election, you ought to see him squirm. What's the reason? The president's big lie. he believes in his heart of hearts that he somehow won that election, though he can't produce any evidence of that fact. Well, we'll give you your chance. I hope that you'll produce the evidence to show one way or the other that the big lie is the truth or not the truth. Your first indictment of former FBI Director Comey failed, in a case brought by an unqualified and unlawfully appointed US Attorney, Lindsay Halligan. So now Mister Comey is being prosecuted. for taking pictures of seashells. This prosecution, personally ordered by the president, who despises Mister Comey, for overseeing the investigation of Russian interference in the twenty sixteen election. You have also baselessly indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that has worked tirelessly to expose violent extremists like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, a group which we and the Senate know well for their January sixth escapade. The same people you gave a clean slate for their role in attacking this capital. A federal judge recently singled out your quote, remarkable statements targeting Kilmar Abrego Garcia as evidence that his criminal prosecution was quote, marked by a retaliatory taint for successfully fighting his deportation. And despite my repeated request, you've yet to produce the DOJ memorandum concluding that it was legally permissible for the President of the United States to accept a gift of a luxury airliner from the royal family of Qatar, despite constitutional and statutory foreign gift prohibitions. Earlier this month, that jet was launched as Air Force one, despite credible reports of security vulnerability. Last weekend, the Department of Justice responded not by addressing these concerns, but by sending federal agents with subpoenas to the homes of the reporters who exposed these lapses. In less than eighteen months at the Department of Justice, you've shown you're still President Trump's personal attorney. Your tenure can be summed up in the four words you said, quote, " I love you, sir," to President Trump. This was your response when you asked what you would say to him. This nation deserves an Attorney General who loves the Constitution more than any single president. An Attorney General focused on keeping America safe, and combating corruption, not satisfying the president's personal grievances or channeling crypto crypto cash to the administration's mega faithful. Mister President, Mister Chairman, I yield.

Now, we turn.

Thank you. Thank you, Mister Chairman. My goodness, I expect you'll be getting a lot of questions about how one person may influence every decision you make and unduly influence everything you do. And I hope you say you are absolutely right, and it is that granddaughter sitting right behind you. She wou- is the cutest thing I've ever seen. Good morning everyone. Thank you for being here. Um, I have the distinct pleasure of introducing Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch. He serves and has served as our Acting Attorney General and our Deputy Attorney General. Uh, and amongst all of the questioning today, uh, most of which I hope is in good faith, uh, Sometimes it gets lost that he is a former prosecutor and dedicated his life to, to prosecuting for this nation. Um, the greatest testament to his good character and wise judgment is he is now a Floridian and my constituent as the newest senator from the great state of Florida. But he has led a, a very distinguished career within the realm of the Department of Justice, of which he now seeks to head as the Permanent Attorney General. Uh, and before I go um more into that, I wanna thank you, Mister Blanche, for offering yourself not just first as Deputy Attorney General, but now as Acting Attorney General, anyone of us on either side of the aisle sitting here today knows what it means to serve, and what comes with that, uh, and what that takes every day, and certainly what that means for your families that stand beside and behind you and sometimes hold you up throughout the process. We thank you and we thank your family is, that is here today. Um. Since President Trump Trump took office and leadership, uh, including you, uh, entered at the Department of Justice, as you heard our Chairman say, you have worked to achieve the lowest murder rate since nineteen hundred. Violent crime arrests are up a hundred and eighty-four percent. Over twenty-four hundred gangs and criminal enterprises have been disrupted and dismantled. Twenty-nine hundred, almost three thousand child predators and human traffickers have been arrested. That is an increase of seventy percent since twenty twenty four. And when it comes to fighting for a fentanyl-free America, which we both appeared at a summit this week, you and the department are excelling there too. DOJ has made over sixty-three hundred fentanyl arrests, seized more than five thousand kilograms of fentanyl powder, fifty-five million fentanyl pills. That is fatal doses enough to kill four hundred and twenty-eight million people. And just so that everybody understands what that means, that is more than the population of the United States of America. That's just a few top-line numbers on core operations at the heart of DOJ's mission. The DOJ is indeed in the driver's seat of the war on fraud. And I hope members on both side of the dais will give you time to talk about that today, not only for their consideration of your nomination, but also so the American people can hear about that. I know that you are in for a long process today, so I wanna take my remaining time to talk about you, the person your career, Todd Blanch. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch is a patriot who was raised in the Department of Justice. He spent merely, he spent nearly a decade in a in what is recognized as one of the best prosecuting offices in the country, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted drug traffickers and violent criminals. In fact, this career, dedicated to justice and the rule of law, started even before that. He started at the Department of Justice as a paralegal. I love that story, how you started there and you worked your way through the ranks. And it was always about hard work. Throughout time, he didn't just clock in and clock out, he did really good work, such good work that he was noticed routinely and honored for his commitment to excellence. In twenty eleven, while he was at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, he received the Director's Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant US Attorney in the Criminal Division. In two thousand thirteen, he received the Federal Drug Agents Foundation's True American Hero Award. He received the New York City Police Department commendation three different years. He received the US Drug Enforcement Administration commendation two different years, and a commendation from the FBI two separate years. And to round out this collection, he received recognition from the ATF in three years. I think this is emblematic of a career that was really spent doing the work of the people and trying to do it well keeping his head down without seeking recognition. But he couldn't help but get it because of the work and the superior performance that he was doing. And I really think that's an example for anyone watching today, anyone in this audience, any young person at home, any young lawyer, do good work, put your head down. You are evidence of that. You do good work, you do a job well done, and you get noticed for that, and you, opportunities will seek you out, commendations will seek you out, more than networking, political connections, anything like that, it is that in which people will seek you out. to serve. And it may be just that job well done that got you recognized by the President of the United States and completely changed your life. Some members will try to hold that against you today. They will ignore that long career and every commendation that you received before you ever met or served or acted as an attorney uh for for the President. They'll ignore all those orders and they'll gnash their teeth because They don't like one man. And I believe that misses the mark. It completely ignores the fact that the reason you stepped up to serve is because you love this country, you dedicated your career to the Department of Justice, and in fact you lived out the motto in Latin. I will not say the Latin because no one will understand that, but I will say the la- the motto of the Department of Justice is who who prosecutes on behalf of justice, not who prosecutes on behalf of a political agenda or to target someone, who prosecutes on behalf of justice. And you stood up and took on that responsibility. And so I hope today's questions will focus on allowing you to explain the legal positions of the department that you've been a part of, or why you've made certain positions in cases or compliance with orders. all things that might go towards how you will perform on behalf of this great nation and the people you serve, how you will excel as an Attorney General, but I suspect that nuance and good faith will be the price paid for clips and likes by some members in this room. I hope today is the exception. Nonetheless, I thank you for stepping up to serve, acting uh as the Attorney General in this time in which um we are seeking for your formal nomination. I thank you for being willing to take on not only this nomination process, but the job itself, because that will be an enormous responsibility, not only to the Department of Justice and the people that work there but for the American citizens in this country moving forward. So I thank you very much. And with that, Mister Chairman, I introduce Mister Todd Blanch as President of Trump Comedy.

Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Senator Moody. Would you please stand at this respond to this oath. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? So help you God. Thank you for your positive response. Now it's up to you to uh take what time you want to make a statement and introduce any people you have with you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Chairman Grassley, and and thank you, Senator, for that um introduction. I I appreciate you and your friendship. Um good morning um Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Durbin and and the other members of the committee. Thank you for for having me. Um as as uh Senator Durbin said a minute ago, I I would like to offer each of you my condolences for the loss of your colleague. Senator Graham, he was a patriot and a friend to so many, to so many of us. It's a loss for the American people and I think honoring him today, and as he's been honored for the past several days is, is the right thing to do. Seventeen months ago, I sat at this table as the nominee to be the Deputy Attorney General. And I told you that serving in the Department of Justice was my American dream. Since then I have, I have helped lead it, first as deputy and now as acting attorney general. And I'm here today to earn your trust, once more. I've lived the American dream. I waited tables to get through college, moved to New York with my wife, and two young kids, went to law school. At night, read textbooks, on the late train home, while I worked days as a paralegal. at the US attorney's office. From that start, I became a prosecutor and spent nine years prosecuting violent gangs and drug dealers. I rose through the ranks of the Department of Justice as a line prosecutor, then a division chief, then as of last year, Deputy Attorney General, and now Acting Attorney General, but I did not take that path for a title. I took it to make a difference for American families and the towns they call home. I am exceedingly grateful to President Trump for his trust, and to my family who have carried me through every long day and late night. My wife, Christine, our wonderful children, Sidney and Justin, my granddaughter Blaine, who's here today, all of them are here today, my wonderful um friends, many of whom are here today, um are really what what make this worth it and what gets me through my days. And so I wanna thank them for not only being here today and supporting me, but also uh being being with me every step of the way in the journey that we're on together. My family's blessings should be available to all Americans. When a family can send their kids to school, walk their neighborhood after dark, and build a life without fear, every promise of the American dream is within reach. When they cannot, none of it is. That's my job, securing safety for every American. I'm pleased to testify again today to tell everybody here that we are doing just that, we are keeping America safe. Since President Trump took office, it's been said a few times this morning already, but it bears repeating, murders are down roughly twenty percent nationwide. We have the lowest murder rate since nineteen hundred. violent crime arrests are up nearly a hundred and fourteen percent. We've taken almost five thousand child predators and human traffickers off the streets. And the Department of Justice has filed nearly one hundred thousand indictments and informations since January twentieth, twenty twenty five. Additionally, in just the last four weeks, in just the last month, paid ninety six million dollars in claims through the Public Safety Officers Benefits Program to eligible surviving families of fallen public safety officers, even while fewer law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty than the prior years. And obviously these are not just numbers. Each one is a family that still has its son or daughter, and an officer who came home for dinner. If you look at Washington and Memphis as examples, where we have worked with federal, state, and local partners, pulling thousands of criminals off the streets in those two cities. Homicides in DC are down about sixty percent and overall crime in Memphis declined by more than forty percent. We've seized thousands of illegal guns, brought more than a hundred and fifty missing children home in those two cities and cleaned up parks and spaces. so you can take your kids and loved ones there once again. We are enforcing our borders. We are prosecuting the smugglers who profited from an open border, removing criminal aliens, and dismantling gangs like MS thirteen and TDA. We're smashing the cartels and any of the scourge of drugs in our communities. We designated the major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, because that's exactly what they are. And we're using every tool that unlocked narco-terrorism charges, forfeiture, and extraditions. Dozens of our cartel leaders are now in American custody, drug seizures are skyrocketing, and overdose deaths are finally falling. We are protecting taxpayers. Last year, the largest healthcare fraud takedown in American history, more than fourteen billion dollars, and another eleven billion dollars in total fraud, um, in just the last three months. That's money stolen from the FISC, stolen from Medicare, from seniors, working families, and we're clawing it back. We're doing all of this, I will add, through partnership. Federal agents, state troopers, county sheriffs, local officers, and state attorneys general in your home states, all pulling in the same direction. That is what happens when we fight crime together, and I wanna bring that model that we've done in a few towns to more communities in every state. Above all, we are restoring American trust. In recent years, we watched the Justice Department turned against many of you, and a former president. And it damaged the public's faith in justice. We are fixing that. Members of this committee on both sides have fair questions about the hard debates of the past year, and I welcome them. I'm proud of what we've done to help American families see safer streets and to have a fair shot at the life they're working to build. None of this is a Republican or Democrat issue. Every senator here has constituents who just want to be safe. The men and women of this department are the finest people I have ever worked with, and leading them is the honor of my professional life. We are keeping America safe, and we are just getting started. I love this country. I love the Department of Justice. Thank you very much, Chairman, for the opportunity to appear before this.

thank you for that testimony and we'll now have our ten minute rounds of questioning i'll start and then senator from illinois uh i've long been concerned about concentration and anti-competitive conduct in healthcare technology but particularly in agriculture family farmers deserve fair prices uh i held a hearing on anti-competitive activities uh in this committee last october on the subject of of agriculture as i recall as a result of that hearing the president issued an executive order and an investigation was started in your department and uh i've sensed some pause in that right now so i have confirmed uh do you have a commitment that the justice department will make antitrust enforcement a priority and since i think there are too many people in the justice department know much about agriculture with some concentration on agriculture

chairman absolutely you're right president trump has issued an executive order i have worked already closely with secretary rollins um on this very issue we we recently held a press conference announcing some of the work that we're doing to to not only deal with the anti-competitive behavior uh that we've seen but also to help ease prices in the cattle market uh around the country so yes chairman i commit to that

our committee has received a lot of outreach about the department's litigation position in louisiana versus fda The plaintiffs in this case challenged the relaxed regulation governing mail-order abortion drugs. Can you tell the committee about this case and explain what the department's doing?

Chairman, first President Trump is the most pro-life president in history. And the work that this department's doing, um, um, in that space is, is something that hasn't been done for ten years, for, for the first time in a decade. HHS and the FDA are actually taking a real look at what's happening um with some of these abortion pills and whether they're actually safe or not. As it relates to the the litigation you referenced, it would be it would be wrong for me to talk about any litigation strategy uh beyond what's in our briefs but uh uh suffice to say chairman that um a as we talk about in our briefs, we are not in any way defending um what what biden and what his administration uh what his administration did with with what respect to that judge but beyond that i i don't wanna comment on the strategy about that litigation

this committee has also received outreach outreach concerning the department's handling of the investigation uh and release of epstein files and your role in it some allegations include problematic redactions insufficient effort to uh follow uh investigative leads a refusal to meet with victims and questions regarding the transfer of maxwell to lower security prison i wanted you to take the opportunity to respond to these allegations what would you like this committee to know regarding these uh files

when president trump signed the the epstein transparency act um the Department of Justice undertook a Herculian task to review millions and millions of potentially responsive files. Um, we were required under the statute to do this expeditiously and very quickly. Um, the Department of Justice did so. Um, we reviewed over six million pages. Many of these pages were not responsive. And what I mean by that is we intentionally over-collected potentially responsive documents. So for example, There was a case going on in Florida at the same time as the Jeffrey Epstein case, involving another defendant named Epstein, having nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. When we collected materials, we collected everything involving Epstein, including the Epstein that had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. So the review of of materials included non-responsive materials. Um, the the the reviewers were qualified, experienced attorneys within the department and the FBI. Um, they took pains to apply appropriate redactions. Um, there were mistakes that were made, and so approximately one percent of the redactions had to be fixed after we released the Epstein files. Um, Chairman, we had dozens of lawyers on call, um, twenty-four seven, whenever we learned that any victim's name had been improperly not redacted, we immediately took the document down. and fixed it as soon as we could. That doesn't excuse the mistakes of which I take responsibility, but it does mean that we tried to fix them. We we complied with the act um w- it required us complying with judges' rules in New York, um which uh required us to redact certain victims' names, even if the victim was also somebody who participated in criminal conduct, um the judge did not allow judges in New York did not allow us to unredact those names. Then the other thing that we did, Chairman, is we made unredacted versions of the entire database available to everybody in this body. And we did that because of transparency. Remember, for four years there wasn't a peep about Jeffrey Epstein. Um, the Biden administration did nothing to be transparent about the Epstein case. We have been extraordinarily transparent in not only producing the records, but letting unredacted versions be available to anybody in this body. And if after reviewing unredacted materials, a member had concerns about why something was redacted, they brought them to, to the department's attention and, and, and we addressed that. So I, I um, I wanna make sure the American people know that this administration, when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein, has been more transparent, um, than any past administration, than Biden was or anybody else. And what we did is we, we complied with the law. And if we learn a new material, we will most certainly um review it and make it available. When it comes to the the the victims of this horrible man, um we will never, never, not talk to victims. We will never not do everything we can to prosecute anybody that committed any crimes against any of these women. Um, so that narrative is false. Um, we have spoken with over thirty representatives of of dozens and dozens of victims um since this process started, any victim, if they're here today, um I would encourage them to to ha- or their lawyers to to meet with the FBI. We will one hundred percent investigate. There are no closed investigations. If we learn today, if we learn next week, if we learn next month, that there's an individual that we can investigate, indict, and prosecute out of the Epstein files, you better believe that we will. And so um, we we worked hard, the the hardworking lawyers within the department to to do the right thing with the, with the, to comply with the act and we did, um and and will continue to do so, chairman.