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The Todd Blanche hearings will test senators’ commitment to the rule of law | Claire Finkelstein

The Guardian – US News

1h ago

The Todd Blanche hearings will test senators’ commitment to the rule of law | Claire Finkelstein

Summary

Trump’s former personal attorney has a vast slate of conflicts of interest. Will lawmakers do their job in his confirmation hearings? T odd Blanche is the most conflicted nominee for attorney general the US Congress has yet to encounter. As the former private attorney for Donald Trump, Blanche has been an unflappable ally for the president since 2023, when he left his private firm , Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, to represent Trump in the hush-money prosecution brought against him by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. More disturbing still, Trump clearly chose Blanche for the job of deputy attorney general, and now attorney general, because of his conflicts of interest, not in spite of them. The constitutionally mandated process of securing the Senate’s advice and consent on nominations for high office should at the very least filter out nominees who lack even the potential for impartiality. Personal conflicts of interest are not equivalent to policy differences. But Donald Trump has effectively turned his own personal interests into every department’s main policy focus, and Blanche will not have the option to recuse without suffering the president’s ire at best, or removal from office at worst. Witness the removal of Jeff Sessions after his recusal from the Russia investigation. For multiple reasons, then, Blanche cannot supply the Senate with the reassurance it needs to move forward with his nomination.

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Trump offers to be 'guardian' of the Strait of Hormuz for a 20% fee | How the fee works and what it means for oil prices

President Donald Trump on Monday asserted that the US would once again start blocking Iranian ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and proposed a 20% fee for all other cargo shipped through the waterway. Trump’s announcement that ‘the US would act as the Strait's GUARDIAN’ further escalated ongoing tensions with Iran, deepening the crisis over control and access to one of the world's most critical shipping routes. “The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday. Trump proposed that the U.S. would act as the 'Guardian of the Hormuz Strait' and charge a 20% fee on all cargo shipped through the waterway for providing maritime security. The proposed 20% fee could significantly increase shipping costs, potentially raising fuel prices globally, as it would amount to approximately $32 million for a fully loaded oil tanker at current prices. Many shipping industry professionals expressed skepticism due to the lack of details on the implementation and the high fees that could make cargo transit unaffordable. Sanchari Ghosh is an Assistant Editor at Mint with over 12 years of experience in journalism, specialising in personal finance, DLT & DeFi, geopolitics and foreign policy, with a particular emphasis on how these areas intersect. She writes extensively about how money works in everyday life—helping readers navigate personal finance decisions. As AI reshapes investing behaviour, capital is increasingly flowing into decentralized ecosystems, redefining how assets are managed, traded, and valued. She focuses on explaining how money flows within frameworks like Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), DeFi protocols, and crypto markets—while also exploring what the future of money could look like in a trustless, programmable financial world. She also focuses on immigration-related issues, simplifying complex topics around visas, passports, overseas financial planning, and the many practical challenges Indians face while moving or living abroad. Alongside personal finance, Sanchari has a strong understanding of international politics, contemporary and historical conflicts, and global state decisions. Before joining Mint in 2020, she worked DNA, The Times of India, Outlook Money, BloombergQuint, and ETMoney. At Mint, she got an opportunity to expand her coverage to include immigration and geopolitical developments while continuing to closely follow personal finance trends and market movements.As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour, and fairness. She is an English Major and her work took her across cities including Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune. Stay updated with the latest Trending , India , World and US news.

Lindsey Graham autobiography sheds light on record on race

Memoir details upbringing of late senator – who denied existence of systemic racism – in segregated south A little-known autobiography from Lindsey Graham published in 2015 sheds light on his complicated record of acknowledging and addressing racism in South Carolina . Graham, born in 1955, came of age in a small textile town in the segregated south, located in Pickens county, the site of the last documented lynching in South Carolina in 1947. My Story, which came across as political spin to anyone who knew the background of Graham’s unlikely rise to political prominence , is a window into the conservative white man’s view of the south’s enduring racial tensions. By Graham’s account, he was the one who convinced his reluctant parents, Millie and Florence James, “FJ”, to finally open their popular Sanitary cafe to Black people – until then they only served Black neighbors through a take-out window. His high school, like others in the state, had been forced to admit a handful of Black students by a supreme court decision. His parents died 15 months apart while he was in college, and he took custody of his teenage sister, Darline, to whom he remained close. (Donald Trump on Monday recommended that Darline Graham Nordone be appointed as interim senator, “a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly”. Later on Monday Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, appointed her to serve the rest of Graham’s term.) The racial climate remained tense as Graham, then the city attorney in Central, a city of about 3,000 people, entered politics in 1994 as a congressional candidate in the third district. Graham took over Thurmond’s Senate seat in 2003, absorbing some of the late senator’s longtime staff and trying to match Thurmond’s record of constituent service. Graham continued the trend in a 2021 interview after the guilty verdict of police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd. “Our systems are not racist,” he told interviewer Chris Wallace on Fox News. “America is not a racist country.” His views were tested again when he and other conservatives got into a tussle in 2022 over his support of a Black jurist, South Carolina district judge J Michelle Childs , for a supreme court vacancy. On Sunday, Clyburn paid tribute to Graham in a post on X. “ For more than three decades , we served the people of the Palmetto State together in Congress.

The Todd Blanche hearings will test senators’ commitment to the rule of law | Claire Finkelstein

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