Todd Blanche's Senate confirmation fight may expose Epstein coverup: expert

President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, his former personal lawyer Todd Blanche, and his upcoming Senate confirmation hearing could reveal more about his efforts to conceal the Epstein files and backfire on his nomination, a former White House insider explained on Monday.Bill Kristol, the editor at large for The Bulwark and a former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, described how senators who will vote to confirm Blanche as the nation's next top law enforcement official will ultimately have to face off over Jeffrey Epstein and Blanche's role in the cover-up.There are many, many Republican lawyers in America, Kristol wrote. Many, sadly, are also pro-Trump. But it is Todd Blanche who has been selected by the president to be attorney general of the United States. He has this distinction: He is the prime orchestrator and key executor of the Trump administration’s Jeffrey Epstein coverup.Former Attorney General Pam Bondi testified to the House Oversight Committee on May 29, saying Blanche “supervised [the] entire process” of overseeing the Epstein files.He was leading the Epstein matter and the release of everything from the beginning, Bondi said in her testimony.Questions have surrounded Blanche and his visit to Epstein co-conspirator and former partner to the late financier, Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell has been pushing for clemency as a condition of her testimony to Congress.Blanche has also been the most visible public defender of the coverup, and of the decision not to investigate or prosecute anyone else for crimes, Kristol wrote.After the files were released, no follow-up investigations have been underway.But thanks to Trump’s nomination of Blanche, there is a chance to force a real public debate, with real Senate votes, on the Epstein coverup, Kristol explains.That is not what Blanche wants. In early April, shortly after becoming acting attorney general, Blanche told Fox News, 'And so I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward,' Kristol wrote.And that doesn't mean senators will not question him about it.But the Epstein coverup should be part, a key part, of one thing going forward: It should be a key part of the upcoming debate on Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general, Kristol wrote. The Blanche confirmation fight can bring the Epstein coverup back into the spotlight this summer. His nomination can be turned into a referendum on the coverup by the Trump administration, and by the entire political class, of Epstein and his co-conspirators and clients.The vote on Blanche can become, it should become, a vote on Epstein, Kristol further added.