Bonus: Cory Booker on Blanche, Epstein, and 2028

0:01Happy Friday, Slatesters. This is Rob Gunther. I'm a producer here at the show. I've been filling in for Mary Harris while she's been away enjoying some summer vacation. And this is normally the time of the week where we'd go off the record for our Slate Plus subscribers. But this week, New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker got in touch with us on the eve of what was supposed to be this make-or-break vote to advance the confirmation of Todd Blanche. Todd Blanche is President Trump's former personal lawyer. Then he was deputy attorney general, now acting attorney general. And they want to make it official.

0:35The only holdup is the Senate Judiciary Committee that Senator Booker is a part of. It has a couple of pissed off Republicans. Pissed off that Trump got them primaried out of the Senate. Yeah. And they're also conveniently mad at that whole Trump slush fund deal brokered by the Department of Justice. You remember, that's the one that would have also given audit immunity to Trump and his family. That deal is on hold for now, but these GOP holdouts want Blanche to pinky promise he won't try it again, which Blanche still won't do. So Wednesday night, this vote gets delayed. Is this a road bump to Blanche's eventual confirmation, or is it more of a permanent block?

1:19Senator Cory Booker, thanks so much for coming on the show. I'm grateful to be on with you. So we're talking on Thursday afternoon, early afternoon. Last night, we got news that the Senate Judiciary Committee was delaying the vote on Todd Blanche to be confirmed attorney general. We have two Republican senators, Texas Senator John Cornyn, North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis. They want Blanche and the DOJ to commit to stronger language to close the door on the deal that would have given Trump this$1.8 billion slush fund and broad immunity from IRS audit. What's your reaction to the delayed vote? Well, I guess thank God that there's Republicans with a backbone to stick stand up against somebody that's so obviously disqualified for this job.

2:01Remember, there was a lot of chatter about how unqualified Hegsest was, but it shut down and he sailed through. There's chatter about Kennedy, but but senators just caved. Here we have actual hearing that was stopped because of two Republicans that were objecting. Unfortunately, they're not objecting to the totality of his record, which is pretty awful. But they are objecting to the fact that this slush fund and the tax exemptive status, the tax cheating exemption that Donald Trump gets within it, which I think is actually a bigger deal. Thank God there's something that they're standing up for, some principle that they're standing up for.

2:39If you read the news reports about the delayed vote this morning, it sounds like John Cornyn and especially Tom Tillis are pretty relaxed. And they kind of are projecting this this vibe that he's going to get confirmed eventually. They just got to work out the language. But then on the other hand, you see Trump today just now put out a truth social post being like, maybe we'll delay the vote and renominate him after these two senators are no longer in office. Do you have any sense of how final this feels? No, I don't have sense. except for the fact that, you know, Donald Trump is going to put a lipstick on any and every pig that he tries to to to bring forward.

3:17The reality is, is we're in a bind right now. If they don't if they don't court these senators, then then they're going to have to delay the vote indefinitely. I will tell you this. Donald Trump is avaristically corrupt. There is nothing he won't do to fill his own pockets. He's made more money this year than he's made in any other year of business, and he's trying to grift off of his office. And the reason why he's not willing to do what judges have said he should do, legal community on the both sides that he should do that this slush fund agreement is wrong, is I believe because he wants tax immunity for all his tax violations that he's doing as he's making these billions of dollars.

4:03Have you met privately or talked with Senator Tillis or Senator Cornyn about this? Yeah, I've had conversations with both of them on this subject matter. Nothing where they've revealed anything to me about their thought process, but enough to know that they have problems. What about Todd Blanch? Were you able to meet privately with him ahead of the confirmation hearings? Not at all. No. I bring this up because He reportedly met with two Democratic colleagues of yours, Senator Dick Durbin and Senator Richard Blumenthal, ahead of the hearings. They said Blanche had claimed he'd copped to making a mistake with the slush fund.

4:39But then when he submitted his written responses to the committee, he said that was not true. So we've got two parties saying different things. You talk about Donald Trump being avaricious. What do you think this all says about Todd Blanche's character? He will say anything necessary to get into that position of ultimate, really the highest law enforcement position as well. And I've talked to my Democratic colleagues who met with him. He said one set of things to them and another thing under oath. And this man cannot be trusted. That's what it makes me clear. At least he's just failing and showing the character to say what he means and means what he says.

5:17Two weeks ago, there was a federal judge in Florida effectively nullified this agreement between Trump and the DOJ. I guess my question is, if this agreement is already blocked by a court, how would any additional written commitments from Blanche and the DOJ take this a step further for you and for your Republican colleagues? For me, again, we are in the right. My Republican colleagues that are willing to stand up are in the right. This is a deal that is corrupt, but it also is illegal and it is a abject manipulation of the judicial process that they created a fiction of a case in controversy when there was none.

5:56Donald Trump was on both sides of that so-called negotiation that led to this settlement. It is invalid in its face. And yet we have a Justice Department leader that is not willing to affirm what one judge has already said. This screams to how corrupt, illegitimate and wrong this deal is and that what the Republican colleagues of mine are asking for is the least one could ask for in a for a nominee that, in my opinion, on so many fronts is is unqualified for this position. That's it for now. And if you want to hear the rest of this episode, the way to do it is to subscribe to Slate Plus. Unlock Slate Plus now by going to slate.com forward slash whatnextplus.