Transcription
But I don't think it was a high point in the judiciary committee's history to put a candidate through the confirmation process with a contempt of court inquiry undecided. Now we're moving forward into Todd Blanch and his potential confirmation as attorney general of the United States. Thanks very much, uh, Mr. Chairman.
Um, I'd like to take the time that we have here to raise an, uh, unrelated issue. You can relax. Uh, thank you. Um, we as a committee considered the nomination of an individual named Emile Boie to go on to the third circuit court of appeals. Um, at the time that we did so, there was a pending proceeding in federal court, uh, an inquiry into whether Mr. Boie and others had committed contempt of court. That proceeding was stayed, um, by an order by two Trump appointees on the DC circuit. They used a device called an administrative stay, which I think lawyers know customarily is a device to hold the status quo for a short period of time, maybe a week or two, um, sometimes only hours. The two Trump appointees kept this administrative stay in place for four months. And it was during that period of the state contempt proceeding involving now Judge Boie that this committee put him through his confirmation and sent him to the floor. I think in ordinary circumstances we would have said, "Wait a minute, there's a contempt proceeding pending against this individual. We should find out about that before we put him on a circuit court of appeals." That these are not ordinary times. And so Mr. Boie was hustled through the confirmation process and then the stay was lifted. Um, the DC circuit told the DC district judge, "You can now go forward with the contempt proceeding." One of the same Trump judges with another Trump judge then stated it a second time and the DC circuit has just announced that it will consider overturning that stay and bank. So that saga is going to continue. But I don't think it was a high point in the judiciary committee's history to put a candidate through the confirmation process with a contempt of court inquiry undecided.
Now we're moving forward into Todd Blanch and his potential confirmation as attorney general of the United States. Well, right now there is a judicial proceeding pending in Florida regarding whether Blanch and other Confederates committed fraud upon the court in that federal district court. Just as a brief aside, fraud upon the court is about as bad as it gets for a legal officer. You can be sanctioned and disciplined for misconduct, for acting out in court, various things. You can go to being held in contempt of court, which is pretty darn serious. But fraud on the court stands apart as an allegation. My view is that this is the first time that the Department of Justice, certainly any senior officials in the Department of Justice, have ever been accused of committing fraud on a federal court. And that matter is pending down in Florida. Um, interestingly, the Department of Justice chose not to respond to the court when the court said, "Yeah, I'm going to reopen this matter and let's take a look at this." Fraud in the court for the first time in the department's history. You'd think they'd want to respond to that specific question about whether the actions of the DOJ comported with its own policies, something DOJ would know about. And then what about a defense memo offered by the client, the Internal Revenue Service? Again, something the DOJ would know about. And the grament of the issue was collusion, which takes two people on both sides of the case. So only the lawyers for Trump, his personal lawyers, answered. Despite all of those apparent invitations from the judge, the DOJ didn't answer. So we have no sense yet of what's going on. Looks like Judge Williams is going to continue that investigation. But I just think bad as it was to confirm a nominee to a circuit court of appeals while a contempt of court inquiry was pending against that exact individual. It would be just as bad, if not worse, to go forward with Blanch's confirmation while a fraud on the court inquiry is pending against him. We have asked for documents related to that first episode. Um, and I am asking again because we don't get a response out of the Department of Justice when we ask for documents. Um, and I hope that we can look into this adequately to be prepared for questioning when, uh, we end up going forward. But we're in a pretty terrific position to require answers from the Department of Justice by simply saying, "Look, we're not going forward until we understand what the heck happened here. And if you're not answering to a federal court, well, you ought to consider answering to us as we deal with your confirmation proceedings." So, I've gone a minute over my time and it's not again, not relevant to the candidate before us, but I did want to have a chance to make this point, uh, publicly because we're going to have to address this and now would be a good time. Thank you very much, chairman.
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