Booker, Senate Judiciary Democrats Demand Todd Blanche Answer Dozens of Oversight Requests Ignored by DOJ

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined all Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats led by Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-IL) in pressing Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for answers on dozens of oversight matters that remain outstanding, either due to no response, insufficient response, or only partial response from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

In light of the unprecedented decision to combine Todd Blanche's Attorney General nomination hearing with the annual Justice Department oversight hearing, the Senators deem these responses as critical ahead of the July 15 hearing, given Blanche's leadership role over many of these issues and direct responsibility answering for DOJ's actions now that he serves as Acting Attorney General.

"We write to request immediate responses to the dozens of oversight requests we have made of the Department of Justice (DOJ) throughout the 119th Congress that remain outstanding. Although not all members signed each letter, we all agree that it is critical the Department respond to all Congressional oversight. You currently seek Senate confirmation as Attorney General, but you also currently serve as the most senior Senate-confirmed official at the Department, and consequently, you are also responsible for ensuring that DOJ abides by Congress's constitutional oversight authority. Additionally, given your tenure as the Deputy Attorney General, and now as Acting Attorney General, the Committee cannot properly assess your nomination without these responses, due to the fact that these issues reflect on your character and abilities as an attorney and public servant," the senators wrote.

"As the Department has had months, and more than a year in many instances, to provide these responses, please ensure that the Committee receives complete responses to all the following requests by July 8," the senators concluded.

The Senators cite the following outstanding requests with no response:

• January 29, 2025: Letter Requesting Access to Volume II of Special Counsel Smith's Report
• February 3, 2025: Letters Regarding Purges of Senior Career Civil Servants Across DOJ and FBI
• February 4, 2025: Letter Regarding Reassignment of Assistant U.S. Attorneys to Immigration Enforcement
• February 20, 2025: Letter Regarding Replacement of Career Ethics Officials With Inexperience Political Appointees
• February 26, 2025: Letter Regarding Compliance with the CLOUD Act
• March 3, 2025: Letter Regarding Termination and Redirection of National Security Career Civil Servants Toward Immigration Enforcement
• March 20, 2025: Letter Regarding Shuttering of DOJ's Public Integrity Section
• March 21, 2025: Letter Regarding Trump Administration Reduction and Termination of BOP Retention Incentives
• March 26, 2025: Letter Regarding Baseless Termination of Pardon Attorney
• March 31, 2025: Letter Regarding Blanche's Confirmation Hearing Testimony
• April 1, 2025: Letter Regarding DOJ's Position on Scope of January 6 Pardons Covering Unrelated, Subsequent Criminal Conduct
• April 1, 2025: Letter Regarding DOJ's Role in President Trump's Baseless Assertion that President Biden's Pardons Are Void
• April 18, 2025: Letter Regarding U.S. Marshal Visit to Former Pardon Attorney Oyer
• April 30, 2025: Letter Regarding DOJ Grant Terminations
• May 2, 2025: Letter Regarding then-Attorney General Bondi's Lobbying Private Prison Contractor Conflicts of Interest
• May 8, 2025: Letter Regarding Change to Department Guidance on Subpoenaing Information About Confidential Sources from Journalists
• May 21, 2025: Record Preservation Request Regarding Pattern and Practice Investigations
• June 9, 2025: Letter Regarding Detention of SEIU President Huerta
• June 12, 2025: Letter Regarding Ed Martin's Abuses at DOJ
• June 12, 2025: Letter Regarding BIA Decision to Weaken Legal Protections for DACA
• June 19, 2025: Letter Requesting Information Regarding Alleged Misconduct by Emil Bove in United States v. Nejad
• July 14, 2025: Letter Regarding Weaponization of Immigration Court Hearings to Trap and Arrest Immigrants
• July 16, 2025: Letter Regarding Termination of Director of DOJ's Departmental Ethics Office
• July 16, 2025: Letter Regarding then-DAAG Bove's Role in Epstein Files Review
• July 23, 2025: Letter Regarding DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility's Investigation into Emil Bove's Alleged Misconduct in United States v. Nejad
• July 28, 2025: Letter Regarding Arrangement of Ghislaine Maxwell Interview and Review of Epstein Files
• August 7, 2025: Letter Regarding Transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell to Minimum-Security Prison
• September 3, 2025: Letter Regarding Hiring Jared Wise, Convicted January 6 Law Enforcement Assaulter, as a Senior Adviser at DOJ
• September 3, 2025: Letter Regarding Deployment of National Guard to Chicago
• September 4, 2025: Letter Regarding Partisan Terminations of Career Civil Servants
• September 5, 2025: Letter Regarding Politicization of DOJ's Antitrust Division
• September 15, 2025: Letter Regarding Diminished National Security Expertise and Capacity Due to Terminations and Reassignments
• September 23, 2025: Questions for the Record Following the September 16, 2025 Hearing Concerning Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with Director Patel
• September 23, 2025: Letter Regarding Termination of Tom Homan Corruption Investigation
• September 30, 2025: Letter Regarding Use of JAG Officers as DOJ Immigration Judges
• September 30, 2025: Follow-up Letter Regarding Restitution Payments for Convicted January 6 Insurrectionists
• October 14, 2025: Questions for the Record Following the October 7, 2025 Hearing Concerning Oversight of the Department of Justice with then-Attorney General Bondi
• October 29, 2025: Letter Regarding President Trump's $230 Million Taxpayer Funded Settlement Requests
• October 29, 2025: Letter Regarding Unlawfulness of President Trump's Military Strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific
• October 30, 2025: Letter Regarding Partisan Deployment of Election Monitors
• November 6, 2025: Letter Regarding DOJ's Voter Roll Requests to States
• November 19, 2025: Letter Regarding Partisan Terminations of FBI Agents and Intervention of U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of the District of Columbia
• December 9, 2025: Letter Regarding DOJ and FBI Weaponization Against Members of Congress for Constitutionally Protected Speech Reiterating Federal Law
• January 22, 2026: Letter Regarding Killing of Renée Good
• January 26, 2026: Letter Regarding Creation of Second Amendment Section within DOJ's Civil Rights Division
• January 28, 2026: Letter Regarding Blanche Cryptocurrency Conflicts
• January 29, 2026: Follow-up Letter on DOJ's Voter Roll Requests to States
• February 9, 2026: Record Preservation Request Regarding Investigations of Senators Kelly and Slotkin's Constitutionally Protected Speech Reiterating Federal Law
• February 25, 2026: Request for Investigation into Decision to Block Use of Force Investigation in January 7 Killing of Renée Good
• February 26, 2026: Record Preservation Request Regarding Review, Redaction, and Production of Epstein Files under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and Earlier Reviews
• March 9, 2026: Record Preservation Request Regarding Allegations Against President Trump within Epstein Files and Missing FBI 302 Interview Memorializations
• March 16, 2026: Letter Regarding OCDETF Operation Trip Knot's Uncovering of Financial Links to Jeffrey Epstein
• March 16, 2026: Letter Regarding DOJ's NPRM on Interfering with State Bar Disciplinary Processes
• March 16, 2026: Criminal Referral Regarding Former Secretary Noem's Perjury Before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees
• April 13, 2026: Letter Regarding Former Attorney General Bondi's Departure
• April 15, 2026: Letter Regarding Halkbank Deferred Prosecution Agreement
• April 20, 2026: Records Preservation Request Regarding Incidents FBI Director Patel's Impairment and Absences on the Job
• April 26, 2026: Letter Regarding Status of Investigation into then-Federal Reserve Chair Powell
• May 11, 2026: Letter Regarding BOP Policies Concerning Transgender Inmates
• May 18, 2026: Letter Regarding Blanche Recusal Issues
• May 26, 2026: Letter Regarding Purported Anti-Weaponization Fund

The Senators cite the following outstanding requests with only partial or insufficient response:

• February 28, 2025: Letter Regarding Shuttering of Task Force KleptoCapture
• March 11, 2025: Letter Regarding Investigation of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund
• March 17, 2025: Letter Regarding DOJ's Election Threats Task Force
• March 26, 2025: Letter Regarding Baseless Termination of Pardon Attorney
• March 28, 2025: Letter Regarding Termination of Immigration Judges at Executive Office of Immigration Review
• April 10, 2025: Letter Regarding Cryptocurrency Enforcement
• May 15, 2025: Letter Requesting then-Attorney General Bondi's Legal Memorandum Concluding President Trump's Receipt of $400 Million Qatari Jet Was "Legally Permissible"
• July 1, 2025: Letter Regarding Emil Bove's Direction to DOJ Officials to Mislead Courts
• July 17, 2025: Letter Regarding Baseless Voter Fraud Investigations
• July 18, 2025: Letter Regarding July 7 DOJ/FBI Memo on Jeffrey Epstein Files and Death by Suicide
• July 28, 2025: Letter Regarding Blanche's Interview of Ghislaine Maxwell
• September 15, 2025: Letter Regarding Attempt to Unlawfully Remove Unaccompanied Children
• September 26, 2025: Letter Regarding U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and Attempted Prosecution of Former FBI Director Comey
• February 13, 2026: Letter Regarding Removal of Assistant Attorney General for DOJ's Antitrust Division Slater

Read the full copy of the letter to Blanche here.