Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee for an oversight hearing of the Justice Department, his first major congressional testimony since being elevated to the role following President Trump’s firing of Pam Bondi in April 2026.
Blanche took over at the Department of Justice on April 2, stepping into the position after Trump dismissed Bondi following growing frustration with her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, a controversy that had consumed the department for months and ultimately cost Bondi her job.
Bondi had served as Attorney General since February 5, 2025, surviving Senate confirmation in a 54-46 vote and subsequently overseeing a dramatic reshaping of the department’s culture and priorities under the Trump administration.
Her tenure involved large-scale firings of career department employees, an aggressive posture toward individuals Trump perceived as political enemies, and repeated battles with congressional Democrats and even some Republicans over the Epstein files.
The House Oversight Committee voted in early March 2026 to subpoena Bondi over the Epstein documents, with five Republicans joining Democrats to support the subpoena, a sign of how deeply the issue had eroded Republican patience with her leadership.
Bondi has since agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee on May 29, 2026, meaning the political fallout from the Epstein controversy will not disappear simply because she has left office.
Blanche brings a very different background to the role: he served as Trump’s personal defence attorney in the cases brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and former special counsel Jack Smith, and was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General in March 2025 before stepping into the top job after Bondi’s departure.
His confirmation as permanent Attorney General has not yet been secured, with Trump reportedly discussing Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as a possible permanent pick, leaving Blanche in an acting capacity during a period of significant institutional and political pressure.
Democratic senators have already moved to test Blanche’s positions on a range of contentious issues since he took office.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island sent a letter demanding that Blanche explain what steps the Department of Justice has taken to address coordinated threats against federal judges and their families, a problem Whitehouse had previously raised with Bondi in an October 2025 oversight hearing at which she promised to sit down with the senator and never did.
Blanche has rebuffed Whitehouse’s follow-up briefing requests, a posture that critics say continues the pattern of executive intransigence toward oversight that defined the Bondi era.
The testimony before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee covered the department’s budget and operational priorities for the coming fiscal year, but senators used the occasion to press Blanche on wider concerns including the department’s treatment of career staff, its handling of politically sensitive investigations, and the framework governing the use of executive power in law enforcement decisions.
The hearing marks an early and high-stakes test for Blanche’s ability to navigate congressional scrutiny in a role he did not seek through conventional channels, having been placed there by presidential decree rather than Senate confirmation in his current capacity.
