Schiff: "He will never do what's best for the American people. He will only do what's best for Donald Trump, and you cannot leave someone like that as the nation's number one law enforcement official."

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) condemned the record of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche before voting against his nomination at a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee today, emphasizing his weaponization of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for the benefit of President Donald Trump.

Ahead of the Committee vote, Schiff outlined the five reasons why the Acting Attorney General should not be confirmed. He explained Blanche supported the president's tax settlement that enriched Trump and his family, used his position in the DOJ to go after the president's political enemies, protected the president in the Epstein files investigation while jeopardizing the safety of victims, sought the establishment of the weaponization fund to pay out the president's cronies, and violated his code of ethics.

Schiff highlighted that Blanche is unable to rid himself of his role as the president's criminal defense lawyer; therefore, he will never represent the American people and urged his fellow members on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote no on his confirmation.

Watch the full clip HERE. Download the clip HERE.

Key Excerpts:

On Blanche's written order to terminate Trump's slush fund:

[…] Nothing in this supposed clarification changes that. So, if tomorrow the president wants to insist - let's say that tomorrow the IRS were to audit the returns of a subsidiary of one of the companies, not a party to the actual litigation - do you think for a moment the president wouldn't assert that settlement agreement as a defense? Do you think for a moment that a court would find that an unsigned statement purporting to restate some testimony in committee would bar the president from using that as a defense? And so, we have this litigation. President sues president. President settles with president. President never asserts the statute of limitations, which would bar the claim.

But no, this is used to enrich the president and his family. That is number one. We should not confirm an attorney general who views his job as enriching the President of the United States.

On the use of the Justice Department to go after Trump's enemies:

[…] Do any of you think that's equivalent to the Justice Department under Todd Blanche seeking to indict two of our colleagues for a video they made that stated the plain truth that you can ignore an illegal order that you indeed have a duty to? I mean, how can any of us countenance an attorney general who would do such a thing?

Or, as my colleague from North Carolina says, brings a seashells case. How absurd is that? Can there be any doubt that that was brought simply because he's on the president's enemies list? I know I'm on that list.

[…] He is not entitled, however, to use the Department of Justice to go after his political opponents. And the day we say that's okay, and the day we confirm an Attorney General who says that's okay, is the day that the rule of law becomes merely an unenforceable idea - a quaint acknowledgment of a past Justice Department in which the rule of law once mattered.

On the DOJ's mishandling of the Epstein investigation:

Number three of the reasons why we should not confirm Todd Blanche is that his efforts to protect the president and others in the Epstein Files investigation is a scandalous abuse of power. He withheld documents implicating the president to protect the president. He has never been able to shed his role as criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump. He withheld records, only complied even partially with the requirement of the law that he disclose them when he was found out in that effort of cover-up and concealment.

And what's more, his mismanagement of the release of the files has victimized the victims again by publishing their names, their likenesses, their photos, their addresses. We should not confirm anyone so incompetent, someone so indifferent to the suffering of these victims, someone who only met with them because he was going to be refused confirmation for his refusal to do so.

On the president's anti-weaponization fund:

[…] Indeed, they're already paying off the president's cronies. Do you remember Michael Flynn, the erstwhile national security adviser of the president? He's already been paid $1.25 million of your taxpayer money. This is a guy who pled guilty twice. Pled guilty twice to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russians. And he's already made $1.25 million off your money - not using this weaponization slush fund but using the DOJ's victim fund, the judgment fund, as a slush fund. And these cop beaters are already signaling their attention to file claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

So even if the weaponization fund doesn't move forward, they are using the same mechanism to pay off these cop beaters and cronies of the president. And nothing in what Todd Blanche signed is going to stop that. What will stop that is a statute passed by this committee in the Congress that prevents this. That prevents taxpayer funding from going to these cop beaters. That is the only thing that will prevent it, and we haven't done it.

On Blanche's violation of his code of ethics:

[…] Here's the thing: he did fire people involved in the cases against Donald Trump. In fact, we heard testimony last week of one of the people he fired. And here is his termination notice.

This is Todd Blanche's signature on a notice of removal from federal service for Peter Carr. Peter Carr was one of the primary spokespeople for Jack Smith's investigation. He was the spokesperson against the president in the president's prosecution for inciting a violent attack on the Capitol.

Todd Blanche writes: "This memorandum serves as official notice that you are removed from your position of public affairs specialist with the Department of Justice." Signed by Todd Blanche. Recused from any involvement in firing anyone in the cases in which he defended the president firing someone involved in the cases in which he defended the president.

###