Attorney general nomination receives intense scrutiny 

The role of the country’s top lawyer came into sharp focus last week as the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted two days of hearings on the nomination of Todd Blanche as U.S. attorney general.  

Committee members of both parties peppered Blanche and other witnesses with questions about his past conduct both as President Donald Trump’s personal defense attorney, his previous role as a U.S. attorney in the Department of Justice, and, most recently, as deputy attorney general and now acting attorney general following the resignation of Pam Bondi earlier this year.

Not surprisingly, the two most outspoken Republican skeptics on the committee were Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who lost his reelection primary to a Trump-backed challenger, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) who is retiring. Both seemed somewhat placated by the end of the second hearing. With the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the committee ratio stood at 11 to 10 last week, meaning the negative vote of a single Republican could doom the nomination until the Graham committee slot is filled.

At the center of the committee’s concern was the belief that Blanche was more loyal to the president and his whims than he was to the Constitution. He assured the committee he would always put America’s interests above those of his former client, saying his service as Trump’s personal lawyer for less than two years “does not define my career, nor does it define me.” He added, “I am his lawyer,” then quickly corrected himself: “I was his lawyer.”

That slip, though, was actually more accurate than Freudian,........

© The Hill