USA15 July, 20262 min read
Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton Face Senate Scrutiny Over Subpoenas, Epstein, and 2020 Election
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Blanche and Clayton faced tense, bipartisan confirmation hearings before Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees. Clayton refused to say Biden won 2020 election and defended subpoenaing NYT reporters.
Clayton, Blanche face Senate
In twin Senate confirmation hearings on Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s nominees Todd Blanche for attorney general and Jay Clayton for director of national intelligence faced intense scrutiny over subpoenas, election questions, and the Justice Department’s handling of sensitive matters.
“I am not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified.”
Clayton refused to say whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election, telling senators: "I am not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified."
Sen. Angus King pressed Clayton with the argument that "saying Joe Biden was certified is not an answer," as the committee expected to vote on Clayton’s nomination next week.
Blanche, meanwhile, faced questions from Sen. Dick Durbin about meeting Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors, and Durbin said Blanche responded that he is "prohibited from meeting directly with them."
Subpoenas spark press fight
Senators pressed top Justice Department officials on a decision to subpoena New York Times reporters over a story about security flaws in President Donald Trump’s new Air Force One plane, with Jay Clayton questioned on what Sen. Ron Wyden called a "flagrant attack" on journalists.
Clayton told Wyden: "I operate by asking my team, 'What do you think?'" as he described signing off on grand jury subpoenas requiring the reporters to testify before a grand jury in Manhattan.
During Blanche’s Judiciary hearing, Sen. Peter Welch asked whether Blanche supported Patel’s effort to subpoena the Times journalists, and Blanche replied that the Justice Department saw the journalists as "material witnesses, just like reporters would be witnesses to a car crash."
The New York Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn called the subpoenas a "retaliatory abuse of prosecutorial power" in an email to the newsroom Saturday, while the White House directed FBI Director Kash Patel to oversee the leak investigation into the Times’ reporting about Air Force One.
Narrow margins, high stakes
Republicans’ narrow margin on the Senate Judiciary Committee raised the stakes for Blanche, with the Washington Examiner reporting GOP held an 11-10 edge following the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and noting it was unclear how Gov. Henry McMaster’s (R-SC) selection of Graham’s sister would affect the hearing.
Durbin previewed likely lines of questioning after meeting privately with Blanche on Tuesday evening, saying each senator would receive 10 minutes of questioning and that the committee would not hold a second round, with Durbin describing the format as "It’s the lowest number, 10 minutes."
CNN reported that Blanche has a razor thin margin of error, and it highlighted the anti-weaponization fund and the Epstein saga as central issues, including Blanche’s insistence that "the weaponization fund is dead."
On Epstein, CNN said Blanche defended DOJ’s handling of the release of more than 3 million pages of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, while the hearings also left Clayton facing questions about the winner of the 2020 election and the subpoenas he signed for New York Times journalists.