First Draft: Are Trump and the GOP About to Confirm the Worst Attorney General Ever?
Acting AG Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer and defender of his corruption and repression, will face a Senate hearing today. In Maine, fallout from the latest ICE shooting continues.
On this day in 2006, San Francisco podcasting company Odeo released a new product: Twitter, the “microblogging” service that would revolutionize, and some say ruin, public and political discourse.
Good morning, and happy Wednesday. Martin here, delighted to bring you your morning news, on what promises to be another day of absurd Capitol Hill tragicomedy.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we consider The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s acting attorney general and nominee for the permanent role who faces a Senate confirmation hearing. There are Republican doubters, but that someone with Blanche’s record of outright abuse of power in service of his master can even get this far, let alone be confirmed, suggests something is wrong in the state of Denmark.
We also take a look at the state of Maine, where something is very definitely wrong after the shooting of an unarmed, legal immigrant on Monday, and where assurances of a “pause” in ICE vehicle stops ring mirthlessly hollow. Then there’s Trump’s Iran war, which lurches on in strike, counter-strike and Oval Office idiocy, even through a rare rebuke from Senate Democrats. What a world.
First, some good news. Today’s edition of ‘First Draft’ has NO paywall, thanks to our sponsor, Ground News. 🗞️ 😎 🙏 So there’s no paywall today BUT you should still consider becoming a paid subscriber to Zeteo and supporting independent journalism!
‘I Love Working For President Trump’
At 9am ET, on Capitol Hill, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will sit before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing. Democrats will attack, and Republicans defend, with key GOP faces monitored for signs of doubt, the death of Lindsey Graham, a Trump loyalist, leaving his side one short.
On Tuesday, The New York Times published a taster of exchanges to come, using emails obtained by a watchdog to show “Blanche’s role in Trump’s Retribution Campaign.”
And yet, if Senate Republicans hold together – perhaps persuading themselves, as the Times put it, that Blanche “has been a low-key, but important check on Trumpian excesses” – Blanche will proceed to a full Senate vote, all but sure to succeed.
It seems incredible it could even be possible. Before Donald Trump returned to power, he faced four criminal cases. Blanche was his lawyer. Only one case, over hush money payments to a porn star who claimed an affair, progressed as far as trial. Blanche lost it. But he didn’t lose Trump’s favor, and since then, Blanche has led the way in an astonishing run of corruption, self-dealing, and abuse of power.
Nakedly political investigations are too numerous to list. Letitia James, James Comey, Jerome Powell and the Southern Poverty Law Center are among high-profile targets. There have been political prosecutions of anti-ICE protesters. In Chicago, the case fell apart. In Texas, draconian sentences were won. There have been firings, of officials believed disloyal or, in the case of Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer, canned for refusing to give Mel Gibson back his guns.
It was Blanche, as deputy to former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who led the cover-up of the Jeffrey Epstein files and therefore Trump’s friendship with the late financier and sex offender, the files still not revealed in full despite congressional action. It was Blanche who conducted a jailhouse interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner, a convicted sex-trafficker, and arranged her transfer to a cushier lock-up. It is Blanche’s DOJ that now blocks investigations of Epstein’s New Mexico ranch.
As acting attorney general, it was Blanche who oversaw Trump’s preposterous $10 billion lawsuit against his own Internal Revenue Service, and it was Blanche who oversaw the so-called settlement setting up a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to pay off Trump supporters, many jailed over January 6, with attendant tax immunity for Trump and his boys. That proved too much even for Trump’s GOP. This week, a judge in Florida rebuked Blanche in the matter, sending her ruling to the New York and Washington bars, where ethics complaints have been filed.
And yet, here he comes, for confirmation as attorney general.
When it comes to Blanche’s work overseeing investigations of supposedly biased DOJ actions under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the Times’s characterization of his struggle to control “Eagle Ed” Martin, a far-right zealot installed at Main Justice by the White House, might have been funny, had it not also been indicative of that possible line of defense for Republicans today: that Blanche is somehow the good guy, fending off even wilder excesses.
Without Graham, Republicans have 11 Senate Judiciary seats, Democrats 10. If one Republican flips, Blanche fails to advance. On Monday, one possible rebel, John Cornyn of Texas, told reporters he was “concerned” by Blanche’s judicial rebuke over the IRS lawsuit.
“We’ll be prepared to ask him some questions about not just the weaponization fund but the tax audit issue [and] also whether or not the lawsuit that was brought was a real lawsuit or whether it was, in the words of the federal judge, collusive,” Cornyn said.
On the other hand, the ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said after meeting the nominee that Blanche told him his work on the IRS suit and the slush fund had been “a mistake. He believes he was a victim of a hit job by this judge in Florida,” Durbin said, adding that Blanche is “a good lawyer, and he’s been at this a long time as a prosecutor and defense lawyer, and he has a way about him that is… not an ‘Aw shucks,’ but it’s pretty close to it.”
It’s hard to see Democrats falling for that – John Fetterman isn’t on the committee – but Durbin’s words pointed to how Blanche might hope to win over Republicans not simply cowed by fear of Trump. Cornyn and Tillis, set to leave Congress, may have nothing to lose. Then again, both have little love for Democrats.
Blanche stands to lead Trump’s onslaught against his enemies for another two years. To stop him, Democrats will seek to exploit perhaps the most shameful part of his record. On Thursday, outside witnesses will testify. Democrats will call Danielle Bensky, in Senator Durbin’s words “a brave survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes”, her name “included in multiple batches of released Epstein Files, due to Todd Blanche’s failures. She’s attempted multiple times to redact her information without success.”
On Monday, a group of Epstein survivors released a short video, describing Blanche’s betrayals and demanding he be rejected. The group behind the video, World Without Exploitation, said: “Under Blanche’s leadership… Epstein survivors’ personal information… was exposed, while the names of many alleged abusers and other powerful individuals connected to Epstein remained redacted.”
The name “Donald Trump” is among those known to have been blacked out. The true extent of his friendship with Epstein remains to be seen. Blanche slow-rolled the file releases, mismanaged them, orchestrated the cover-up. Bondi already said so.
Speaking to the Times, Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, which obtained the emails cited by the paper, said senators should judge Blanche “not by his assurances at a confirmation hearing, but by the record he has already built.”
World Without Exploitation was more stark: “Stand with survivors,” it said. “Tell the Senate to vote NO on Todd Blanche for AG.”
Maybe the last word should go to Blanche himself. In April, on being named acting attorney general, he said: “I love working for President Trump, it’s the greatest honor of a lifetime. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.’ I don’t have any goals or aspirations beyond that.”
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🇮🇷 Iran War Updates
U-turn time: Predictably, Donald Trump dropped his plan to charge a 20% fee on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, citing strenuous opposition from regional allies (if not his own administration’s previous insistence that it would be illegal) and instead ordering the reimposition of a naval blockade on Iran.
Ways to pay: Trump claimed regional allies would “love” to pay for U.S. action against Iran “a different way.” “They said… we’d love to invest in the United States with billions and billions of dollars,” Trump burbled, adding, a day after proposing it, “I don’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the Strait.”
Hot war: Early this morning, U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces began launching another “wave of strikes against Iran.” Earlier, Iran said it fired on three ships in the Strait and targeted Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan. Trump told Fox he planned to hit bridges and power plants next week – which would be war crimes – and did not rule out the use of troops on the ground.
Casualties of war: An Iranian government spokesperson said at least 30 civilians have been killed in U.S. attacks on southern Iran in recent days. Hundreds of others have been wounded, another official said. The International Maritime Organization said Iranian missiles killed two and wounded 14 on UAE-flagged tankers. The UAE threatened retaliation.
No way, NDAA: In Washington, Senate Democrats blocked the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, in protest of the war with Iran and U.S. military aid to and intelligence cooperation with Israel.
Markets watch: Oil prices dipped after Trump dropped his threat to charge fees over the Strait: a common pattern throughout the war.
Lebanon latest: Axios Trump scooper Barak Ravid said Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu to move troops out of Syria and Lebanon, saying: “They don’t want you there. You should redeploy.” The Israeli prime minister insisted on the need for “security zones.” In Lebanon, Israeli forces carried on shelling and destroying infrastructure.
Susan Collins Is ‘Encouraged’? Over ICE??
News that ICE will pause most vehicle stops after deadly shootings in Texas and Maine was welcome, if hardly sufficient to atone for the horror. Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins, meanwhile, appeared to claim credit for the move.
“I spoke with DHS Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops in the wake of yesterday’s deadly Biddeford shooting,” Collins posted. “I am encouraged that the department has agreed to do so.”
As Collins said, the agents who killed 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero were not wearing body cameras, for the expanded use of which Collins helped allocate $20 million this spring. But Collins also blamed Democrats for a shutdown she said delayed such reforms: a petty partisan point in the aftermath of a horrific shooting, never mind the obscenity of helping ICE receive extra billions after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.
Guerrero was legally in the U.S., was not the agents’ intended target, and, according to a witness, told his attackers “I tried to stop,” even as his life ebbed away. Agents handcuffed his lifeless body and left it to lie on the street. His wife and young daughter looked on. The Trump administration sought to blacken its victim’s name, saying he tried to use his car as a weapon, a claim it soon had to drop.
Collins said, “[I]t is clear ICE needs to improve its performance,” then praised work beyond street-level enforcement. That was tone deaf. Democrats in Congress and contenders for the nomination to face Collins in November condemned the Biddeford killing and demanded root and branch reform, if not abolition.
Border czar Tom Homan wasn’t backing down, claiming “vehicle attacks are up 3,400%” and telling Fox vehicle stops would be subject only to a “short pause, just to make sure we’re doing the right thing. Operations continue. Arrests are at record numbers. Deportations are at record numbers.” Later on Tuesday came news of the death in Florida of an immigrant who ran from ICE, to be hit by a truck.
It all bore out Swin’s reporting for Zeteo just last week, that the Trump administration is merely gathering its strength. Worse is sure to come.
🗞️ What You Need to Know
Big Lie: Trump said he would have “big news” in his primetime address Thursday. News outlets reported he will make claims about China, Venezuela, and supposed voter fraud in the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden. Law firms that cut deals with Trump last year, meanwhile, were reported finally to be fighting back.
Payday: Writer E. Jean Carroll finally received $5.6 million from Trump. Her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, saluted the unanimous jury that in 2023 found Trump “liable for sexually assaulting and defaming” Carroll and awarded the sum.
Court orders: Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett told Congress the Supreme Court needs extra security funding, detailing threats including a swatting at Barrett’s home and deliveries in the name of the murdered son of a New Jersey judge.
Hatch-Act man: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces a formal complaint over attempts to intervene in congressional races, having reportedly sought to persuade third-party candidates to clear the way for Iowa Republicans.
Wholly crap: A spotlight remained on Kennedy’s stewardship of U.S. public health, as the CDC said it expected an outbreak of cyclospora, a parasite that causes explosive diarrhea, to continue through August.
Naughty Elon: Wisconsin elections officials referred two complaints to prosecutors after finding probable cause that Elon Musk violated bribery law by handing checks to voters in his attempt to sway the 2025 state Supreme Court election.
Suits you: Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia grad student detained for 104 days over his pro-Palestine activism, sued “the Heritage Foundation, Stephen Miller, a Columbia affiliate, and others” under the Ku Klux Klan Act, a post-Civil War law that restricts official co-operation with vigilante groups.
🧠 Pop Quiz!
In 1964, the Indiana University student who would find fame as writer E. Jean Carroll won which national sporting title?
Keep your eyes out for the answer below!
🌏 Anywhere But America
🇵🇸 Don’t forget Gaza: An Israeli strike today killed at least four members of the same family, including a 6-year-old girl, Al Jazeera reported. Israeli strikes and gunfire yesterday killed at least 10 Palestinians, including a 10-year-old boy and a senior police officer, officials said.
🇺🇦🇷🇺 Going ballistic: Ukraine said it downed five Russian ballistic missiles, though other missiles and drones hit Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Paris, seeking aid to boost such air defenses while joining other European leaders for the Bastille Day parade.
🇨🇺 Power play: Cuba suffered its third blackout in three days under an oil embargo imposed by the Trump administration, which openly calls for regime change in Havana and has hinted at military action.
🇨🇩 Ebola update: Eighty percent of new Ebola cases in DR Congo are from unknown chains of transmission, the World Health Organization said, adding, “Perhaps the most alarming finding is that many of the newly reported deaths are people who died in their communities without ever reaching a health facility and without receiving care.” At least 719 people have died.
🇬🇧🇫🇷 World Cup runneth over: With Andy Burnham confirmed as Britain’s next leader, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is reportedly set to resign next Monday… after a trip to New Jersey for the World Cup final Sunday, if England beat Argentina today. France, beaten by Spain yesterday, were revealed to be traveling on jets also used for ICE deportations.
😳 WTF?!
House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t even be bothered to pretend to care about the ICE killing of Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. Unsurprising, but utterly sick all the same.
🧠 Trivia answer: Miss Cheerleader USA.
ICYMI From Zeteo
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Yes! They will confirm Todd Blanche. They have the nerve to say they’re using qualifications as a measure. The American people did the same thing with Donald Trump. Elected the most incompetent and unlearned President ever. So…..here we are.
I hope not but agree with you. Trump and his entire Cabinet are incompetent with few or no qualifications for their jobs aside from bending the knee, loyalty to the buffoon, or involvement in Project 2025.