The Leadership Conference Condemns Senate Judiciary Committee Vote to Advance Todd Blanche as Attorney General
A PDF copy of this statement can be found here
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement after the majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance the nomination of Todd Blanche to be Attorney General of the United States:
“The Attorney General of the United States is a role designed to be the country’s lawyer and the people’s protector, not the president’s personal weapon. Yet, today, in a shameful display, the majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed this administration’s goal of having an Attorney General represent Donald Trump without concern or consideration for the Constitution, our laws, or the importance of serving justice with fairness and based on evidence and facts. The Department of Justice was created to ensure the rights of newly freed slaves and the Civil Rights Division was created to protect those civil rights, yet this vote today is a vote to abandon that storied mission.
Todd Blanche has spent two years at the Justice Department refusing the distinction between being a protector versus a persecutor. He has refused the distinction between being the people’s attorney and a personal attorney. At every turn he exhibited loyalty to the president’s personal and political interests, purging anyone who isn’t following suit, prosecuting civil rights defenders, and leaving survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking more traumatized, while refusing to be accountable to them. He fired the career lawyer who told a federal judge the truth about a wrongful deportation and is investigating civil rights groups and those who expose hate and extremism. While he signed a non-binding, performative document to secure his confirmation vote, his DOJ continues to execute forms of a slush fund for violent offenders and leaders of hate and extremist groups and supports a sweetheart deal barring the government from pursuing a variety of claims against the president, his family, and businesses.
These facts make Todd Blanche unfit for the job. It would make any nominee of any party unfit for the job.
A wide cross section of stakeholders opposed Blanche’s confirmation, not just our broad and diverse civil rights coalition. More than 1,200 former Justice Department employees, the New York City Bar Association, 101 former judges, and many Epstein survivors, all warned the committee of Todd Blanche’s repeated failures and lack of independence that should disqualify him for this job.
The Department of Justice should be enforcing the Voting Rights Act, protecting people from discrimination at work and in school, and not debating whether federal immigration agents can intimidate voters at polling places or are held accountable for killings. Millions of Americans depend on this office, whether or not they ever learn the name of the person running it. The nomination moves to the Senate floor now, where every senator will have to put on the record who they believe the Attorney General works for and who this person is supposed to protect. The Leadership Conference will continue the fight to block this confirmation.”
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