While Blanche was testifying before lawmakers today, Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel under Barack Obama, answered questions in a closed-door deposition from the House oversight committee about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein as part of the panel’s investigation into the convicted sex offender.
Afterwards, James Comer, the committee’s Republican chair, said that he hopes Blanche can sit for an interview “as soon as his confirmation is completed”.
Trump rails against New York state’s data center moratorium
Donald Trump lambasted New York Governor Kathy Hochul Wednesday for pausing the construction of large new datacenters, the gargantuan, resource-intensive facilities that power artificial intelligence.
“New York state has made a terrible decision,” he wrote on Truth Social, the social network he owns.
Trump said that Hochul had implemented the one-year ban for purely political reasons and should scrap the policy “IMMEDIATELY”.
“One of the biggest Driving Forces in the Future for Jobs, are Data Centers. They are big, strong, bold, and Money Machines for the State in which they are built,” Trump wrote.
New York became the first US state to enact a moratorium on new datacenters on Tuesday. Hochul issued an executive order mandating a one-year statewide pause on the large facilities.
“This pause will remain in place for up to one year while New York establishes the strongest possible framework to protect our community’s guardrails to reduce the risk to our energy grid, minimize land disruption, noise pollution and protect our national resources, especially our water supply,” Hochul said at a press conference.
The president has pursued a deregulatory agenda with regards to AI during his second term, though he said Wednesday that datacenters should pay for their own water and power rather than accepting tax breaks, as have been offered in the past.
“Both the Taxes and the Jobs amount to LIQUID GOLD! All of this Income, and other Benefits, will be going to Red States, and some Blue, where Data Centers are sought as Cash Cows, with Lower Taxes and Record Setting Jobs,” he wrote, adding that data centers constituted “tremendous WINS” for “states that were lucky enough to get them.” He said the “radical left democrats” would cause the US to “lose Data Centers and AI” to China.
The appetite for datacenter moratoriums is growing nationally as anger grows over the facilities’ effects on energy prices and local environments. Almost three-quarters of Americans oppose a datacenter project being built near their homes, according to a new Heatmap poll.
More than a dozen states have considered moratoria in response to residents’ fears about the potential costs of living next to datacenters, especially higher utility bills and negative environmental effects. Seattle approved a one-year ban on datacenter development in June, becoming the largest city to do so.
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Earlier today, while we brought you the latest from Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing, another nominee for one of the cabinet’s top jobs was facing questions from Senate lawmakers.
Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, refused to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election during his confirmation hearing to become the nation’s next intelligence chief.
As my colleague Cate Brown reports, Clayton opted instead to say that Biden was “certified” as president. Clayton also skirted questions about his previous election integrity claims and whether or not a White House official asked him to subpoena a group of New York Times journalists as part of an alleged national security investigation.
Richard Blumenthal then asks Todd Blanche if he would agree that agents of the United States should not fire their weapons into cars unless there is an imminent threat.
Blanche is told by the chair to give a short answer, and he does:
There’s a well-established standard as to when an agent can discharge their firearm and I think that that’s something that should be followed in every case.
Blumenthal presses him, saying that that includes not firing weapons into cars.
Asked if he would like to respond, Blanche adds:
There’s not really a response. It requires federal agents to follow the rules.
It comes as the White House this morning overturned a day-old DHS memo that said they would be halting traffic stops in the wake of recent stops that left two men killed in the space of a week, hours after Donald Trump insisted ICE keep making them.
The directive came after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on 7 July and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine on Monday. Both men were unarmed, neither was the intended target of the operation that killed him, and in both cases the agents involved wore no body camera to record what happened.
As my colleague Joseph Gedeon notes, five of the 11 people shot dead by federal immigration officers since Trump’s second term began were in their vehicles at the time, and the DHS’s standard justification – that occupants had “weaponized” their vehicles against agents – has repeatedly been undercut by witness video.
Blanche apologizes for mistakes made by DOJ 'in about 1% of the documents' related to Epstein
Richard Blumenthal then invites Todd Blanche to apologize to survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, some of whom are in the room, for how the DOJ mishandled the release of the files in its investigation and the mistakes that were made.
A reminder that at a House judiciary committee hearing in February, his predecessor Pam Bondi refused to directly apologize to survivors in the room for how her department handled the case.
Blanche at first goes down a similar path, giving a vague expression of regret that this happened to them.
My heart breaks for every victim of any sexual crime, whether it’s involving Mr Epstein or somebody else. And so if you’re asking me to apologize that this happened to them, of course, absolutely.
Pressed by Blumenthal on whether he would apologize to them for “the mishandling and the mistakes” by the justice department, Blanche adds:
I will absolutely say that any mistake that we made should not have been made … Any mistake that was made was not appropriate. And so, yes, I am sorry that in about 1% of the documents mistakes were made.
But what I will say on top of that is we put tons of resources to rectifying those mistakes immediately, including pulling down documents within minutes of being informed that there potential mistakes made.
After a 15-minute recess, the hearing has resumed. Todd Blanche has been refusing to answer questions from Democrat Richard Blumenthal regarding the clemency Donald Trump granted to private equity executive David Gentile, who had just begun a seven-year prison sentence for what prosecutors described as a $1.6bn fraud scheme, last year.
The founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPB Capital, Gentile had been convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in defrauding thousands of individual investors.
Blanche repeatedly declined to discuss whether he had any knowledge about or involvement in the commutation of Gentile’s sentence. He also refused to comment on “leaks” or the existence of investigations, when Blumenthal asked him about once such investigation into Gentile that was stopped. That is despite – as Blumenthal pointed out – Blanche commenting on several other investigations this morning.
In response to a question from Coons, the acting attorney general also confirmed that he does “not believe” that Trump would be able to run for another term as president.
A reminder that under the 22nd amendment of the US constitution, a president is only able to serve two non-consecutive terms in office.
Blanche repeats that Trump 'anti-weaponization' fund in 'dead'
Throughout today’s confirmation hearing, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned whether the $1.8bn fund created to compensate the president’s allies has been definitively abandoned by the Trump administration.
Last month, Blanche insisted that the justice department would not moving forward with the fund while answering questions from the House oversight committee. Today, he sought to underscore his position as he fielded questions from senators on both sides of the aisle.
“I’m under oath today, and I’ve said it’s dead repeatedly,” Blanche in response to Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat.
Earlier, outgoing Republican John Cornyn, a senator from Texas who lost his primary bid this year, also grilled Blanche about the status of the fund.
“The settlement fund is just not moving forward,” Blanche told Cornyn. “No money went from the treasury to any other account.”
Blanche went on to clash with Whitehouse further, after the Democratic senator accused him of hiring Jared Wise, a rioter at the January 6 insurrection, to be a part of the justice department staff. Whitehouse also said that Blanche “bragged that bringing justice for violent rioters meant that every one of them was either pardoned or had their sentence commuted”.
The acting attorney general said that “almost everything” that Whitehouse said was “absolutely false”.
Blanche also insisted that he did “not hire the person referenced” and noted that while Trump has the “absolute right” to pardon anyone who he sees fit, including all of those who took part in the Capitiol riots, he has not celebrated that decision.
Blanche spars with Democratic senator over Kash Patel's alleged behavior as FBI director
Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse probed Blanche over the alleged behavior of FBI director Kash Patel while on the job.
Patel has denied, under oath, recent allegations of excessive drinking and unexplained absences on the job, dismissing them as “baseless”.
The reports were first covered by the Atlantic mid-April, and the embattled FBI director sued the magazine – filing a defamation lawsuit against the magazine for publishing the claims and seeking $250m in damages.
During Blanche’s hearing, Whitehouse questioned whether the nominee for attorney general was happy with Patel’s performance. “Are you good with his airplane jaunts? Are you confident he’s not drinking on the job? Are you sure none of his travel is a pretext for vacation activities like snorkeling Olympics and visiting girlfriends? Are you sure he knows what he’s doing? Do you vouch for him? Are you willing to look at whether he lied to this committee?” the Democratic senator asked.
Blanche quickly snapped back: “That’s an extraordinarily obnoxious question, senator. And I have full faith in director Patel and the work that he’s doing every day.”
Blanche says he will 'follow the law' when pushed about federal agents at polling sites
When asked by Klobuchar whether he would ensure that federal agents are not deployed to polling sites during the November midterm elections, Blanche simply said that he would “commit to following the law”.
A reminder that the US constitution defers control of elections to each state. Donald Trump, however, has said publicly that he favors elections being “nationalized” – which has drawn widespread backlash.
“Do you understand why voters, US citizens, are concerned about armed agents at polling places?” Klobuchar asked.
“I’m not aware of armed agents being at polling places,” Blanche responded. “So I don’t. I’m not aware of that concern. But I will tell you, we will follow the law, senator.”
Blanche didn’t give a clear answer when asked by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, whether federal officials will work with local law enforcement in Texas and Maine, following the recent fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“I expect that these investigations should be run as every investigation of similar kinds, and so that necessarily includes working with state and locals in the appropriate way,” Blanche said.
This comes after the federal government refused to cooperate with Minnesota investigators from accessing the scene of Alex Pretti’s death in Minneapolis, despite having the requisite judicial warrant.
Blanche defended the justice department’s handling of the Epstein files during his testimony on Wednesday, while also acknowledging that there were “mistakes that were made” when it came to some of the redactions, including redaction errors that exposed sensitive personal information about some Epstein survivors. Blanche said that the department corrected those errors as soon as they became aware of them.
“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,” he said. “That doesn’t excuse the mistakes, of which I take responsibility, but it does mean that we tried to fix them.”
Blanche maintained that the department complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“When it comes to the victims of this horrible man, we will never, never, not talk to victims” Blanche said. “We will never, not do everything we can to prosecute anybody that committed any crimes against any of these women. There are no closed investigations.”
During a heated exchange, Durbin later asked whether Blanche would commit to meeting personally with some of the Epstein survivors within the next 30 days.
Blanche responded that if the survivors are represented by attorneys, he is prohibited from “directly meeting with them” but, he said that members of his staff would meet with them.
“You’re dancing on the head of a pin here,” Durbin said. “If you’re truly committed to extraordinary transparency and you’re willing to meet with these victims, I hope you will do it immediately, or we’re going to hold you to it.”
In his opening statement before senators today, Todd Blanche, said that he is “pleased to testify again today to tell everybody here that we are doing just that-we are keeping America safe”.
The nominee for attorney general, who has been leading the justice department in an acting capacity since Pam Bondi was fired in April.
Throughout his opening remarks, Blanche made a number of misleading comments about crime rates across the country.
First, Blanche said the US has the “lowest murder rate since 1900”.
While recent data, compiled by the Crime Index, shows that the US is seeing a record low homicide rate, this only goes back to the late 1950s.
Blanche also said that homicides in Washington DC are “down about 60%” and overall crime in Memphis “declined by more than 40 %”.
In Memphis, overall crime has fallen 41% since 2023, per the Memphis Police Department. However, the year‑over‑year drop from 2024 to the end of 2025 – Donald Trump’s first year back in office – is 27%.
Meanwhile, in Washington DC, the drop in murder rate during that same period is 32%, according to Metropolitan Police Department data.
During his opening remarks, Durbin slammed Blanche for a number of his decisions while both as deputy attorney general and his role as the nation’s acting top prosecutor.
He criticized Blanche for his work establishing the almost-$2bn dollar “anti-weaponization fund” used to pay out defendants who took part in the January 6 insurrection and born out of Donald Trump’s settlement with the IRS. “Despite resounding bipartisan criticism and admitting that it was a mistake, you’ve refused to rescind the order creating this fund,” Durbin said. “That order can still be found on the Department of Justice’s website today.”
The judiciary committee’s top Democrat also noted that he had a conversation with Blanche yesterday, where the acting attorney general said that the judge who chided the original lawsuit. Judge Kathleen Williams wrote that Blanche’s testimony to Congress, that the court could not review the settlement agreement, was “at best misleading and at worst disingenuous.”
Durbin, however, said that Blanche called Williams’ opinion was “a hit piece”.
“Another troubling attack on a judge for doing her job,” Durbin added.
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Senators begin Todd Blanche confirmation hearing for attorney general
Senators on the judiciary committee have kicked off the confirmation hearing for Todd Blanche to serve as the attorney general.
The committee chair, Republican Chuck Grassley, noted that the lawmakers will consider Blanche for a “promotion” today. A reminder that Blanche was previously confirmed, and served, as deputy attorney general under Pam Bondi.
“We’re not starting out from a blank slate. You have a track record,” Grassley said. “My Democrat colleagues have relentlessly attacked the department and your and President Trump’s leadership.”
During his opening statement, Grassley also used his time to flag new records released by the judiciary committee that shows former special counsel Jack Smith obtained text messages that 44 members of Congress sent to White House officials during the final weeks of Donald Trump’s first term in office. This is part of a wider strategy from many Republican lawmakers to paint Smith’s investigation as a “recklessness and blatant abuse of power”. Grassley added that the former special counsel’s operation was “a runaway political train that improperly obtained congressional information”.
In response, the committee’s ranking member, Dick Durbin, noted that Smith has volunteered to appear before the judiciary committee under oath and testify about his work as special counsel.
“For reasons I cannot explain, the Republican majority does not want to bring Jack Smith before this committee and have him testify under oath,” Durbin added. “They continue on a 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.”
As we noted earlier, Jay Clayton will also appear before Senate lawmakers today at a confirmation hearing to be the next director of national intelligence.
Clayton, if confirmed, would replace Bill Pulte, whom Donald Trump installed as acting director last month. Pulte’s position has been deeply divisive on Capitol Hill, with members of both parties saying his background as the chair of a federal mortgage regulation agency is not enough experience for the job, and that Pulte’s unwavering loyalty to Trump and willingness to punish the president’s political enemies makes him a dangerous spy chief.
Like Pulte, Clayton has thin credentials for America’s top intelligence job. He served as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump’s first term and made millions working as a Wall Street attorney in the decades prior to his 2017 SEC post. He has no experience serving in any intelligence agency in any capacity.
But Clayton has also demonstrated unwavering support for Trump and his agenda – including his conspiracies of election fraud.
My colleague, Cate Brown, has been covering the latest.
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Donald Trump will start the day with meetings in Washington. He’s then due to travel to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he’ll take part in a defense and innovation summit at the US Army War College. The event will mark major energy investments in the Keystone state, and the president will be joined by a number of tech executives.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as Trump heads to Pennsylvania. He’s due to speak at 3:15pm ET.
Trump says ICE should continue traffic stops after recent fatal shootings
The president is awake and posting about ICE on his own social media network.
Writing on Truth Social, Donald Trump said ICE agents are doing a “great” job and that crime is “way down” in the US.
The full post reads:
The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done. CRIME IS WAY DOWN IN AMERICA, in many cases with numbers that haven’t been seen in decades. The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted. Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out.
In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.
The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch. I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job. Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America.
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Two US advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, alleging that sanctions targeting Palestinian rights organizations, international criminal court (ICC) officials and a UN expert have unlawfully violated Americans’ first amendment rights.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, argues that the administration’s sweeping 2025 sanctions package has had a “profound” chilling effect on Palestine-related advocacy, compelling Americans to sever professional relationships and abandon constitutionally protected work.
“The Trump administration is using the blunt instrument of economic sanctions not only to punish human rights defenders but to police the political expression of millions of Americans,” said Omar Shakir, executive director of Democracy in the Arab World Now (Dawn), a Washington-based advocacy group focused on US foreign policy in the Middle East. Dawn joined the New York-based Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide in Wednesday’s lawsuit.
The 43-page legal complaint notes that both organizations have worked on ICC submissions documenting Israeli war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza. Dawn has also worked with the three sanctioned Palestinian NGOs and Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur, to publish research, convene conferences and lobby US policymakers.
Former president Joe Biden will publish a memoir this fall, publisher Little, Brown and Company told the Associated Press.
‘Promise Me, America,’ which Biden says will touch upon everything from the economy to his decision to drop his bid for reelection, is scheduled to come out 17 November.
The timing of the book – two weeks after midterm elections in which Democrats seek to regain control of Congress – could raise concerns within his party. Many Democrats remain divided on Biden’s legacy and his ill-fated determination to seek a second term in the White House and leaders hope to keep the fall campaign focused on the record of Republican president Donald Trump .
“‘Promise Me, America’ is about the challenges we faced as a nation. It’s about the decisions I made and why I made them,” Biden said in a video statement accompanying Wednesday’s announcement. “Most of all, it’s about my faith in the promise of America.”
Reports of Biden’s book have circulated for more than a year, and the former president himself has referred to it during public remarks, appearing to suggest it would be released before November’s election.
US officials are facing mounting calls to remove US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from American streets after federal agents killed two men who were not the target of enforcement action in less than a week.
Advocacy groups, including the National Police Accountability Project and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, described the fatal shootings of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas as extrajudicial killings.
“The bystander videos I watched make it clear that ICE agents carried out another extrajudicial public execution in Maine,” Lauren Bonds, the executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said in a statement.
“It’s clear that the only way to prevent ICE from killing us in the streets is to remove ICE from the streets.”
Congress can do so, she added, by freezing funding to the agency and limiting their jurisdiction.
Details have emerged in recent days about how the two killings unfolded during operations that quickly turned deadly.
Trump's pick for attorney general faces Senate hearing later today
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next US attorney general – his former personal defense lawyer Todd Blanche – faces what is expected to be a contentious Senate confirmation hearing today.
Blanche will come under tough questioning from Democrats and potentially some Republicans during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A sole Republican “no” vote on the panel could be enough to torpedo the 51-year-old Blanche’s appointment to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.
Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi was fired by Trump and has been closely tied to what Democrats have dubbed a “retribution” campaign by the Republican president against his perceived political enemies. Senators are also expected to robustly press Blanche on his handling of the release of millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
It comes amid a flurry of confirmation hearings set to take place today. Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, weeks after Trump abruptly delayed his nomination.
And the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold nomination hearings for Dr Erica Schwartz to permanently head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an agency that has been without a confirmed director for most of Trump’s second term.
The committee could also confirm Sean Kaufman to lead emergency and disaster preparedness efforts as Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
In other developments:
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Federal immigration officials have been instructed to stop pulling over vehicles until further notice, according to a homeland security source, following two recent deadly shootings in Texas and Maine during which officials shot and killed immigrants in vehicles. More here.
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Darline Graham, the sister of the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham, was sworn in to temporarily fill his Senate seat on Tuesday, just three days after his sudden death. Graham was appointed by Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, to fill the remainder of her brother’s current term. More here.
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A person died during an encounter with federal immigration officials on Tuesday morning in Florida, marking the third death in one week linked to immigration enforcement operations. Officials with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is a component of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had an “encounter” with four men in a vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store along a busy road in St Augustine, Florida, the highway patrol spokesperson said. More here.
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Supreme court justices requested $14.6m increase in security amid a rise in threats. Amy Coney Barrett told House lawmakers that a sharp rise in threats against her and other justices is increasingly affecting her personal and family lives. More here.
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