LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Here to give us his view of Todd Blanche's confirmation hearings is Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. He's a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he joins me now. Good morning, Senator Booker. Welcome to the program.
CORY BOOKER: Good morning. Thank you for having me on.
FADEL: At the end of your line of questioning in Wednesday's hearing, you said that Todd Blanche, quote, "should not be confirmed for this job" (ph). Why?
BOOKER: Well, you hear people of good faith on both sides of the aisle call out the sort of outrages of his short tenure, from conservatives like Bill Kristol talking about his handling of the Epstein files, where he went and met with - directly met with Ghislaine Maxwell in prison, and then left, downgraded her to a prison camp, the least restrictive possible where sex offenders are never sent, against BOP, Bureau of Prisons', policies, but had no information that led to a new conviction, new investigations.
And then violated the privacy rights and really subjected retraumatization to the victims because when he finally released Epstein files, he redacted the powerful men's information, but put out personal information - phone numbers, addresses, even images of many of the women who were the survivors of that violence. It's issues like that that have outraged people on both sides of the aisle, using his office to go after Donald Trump's perceived enemies like Jim Comey for putting seashells in the sand in shapes. All of these things are painting a picture of somebody that is not pursuing justice but is using the justice system as a shield to protect Donald Trump and as a sword to go after his enemies.
FADEL: You mentioned his handling of the Epstein files quite a bit. That's going to be the subject of some of today's confirmation hearing as it continues, including an Epstein survivor who'll be an outside witness. What do you hope to learn?
BOOKER: Well, I think that the testimony of these women is really so courageous and very profound and damning. You - we already know that they had strategic meetings where they pulled together people in the Situation Room to figure out how to protect Donald Trump from this, all while trampling on the rights of the courageous women who came forward. So this is just very blatant, where he violated a bipartisan law, both on its timeline and in its substance, and really caused a lot of damage. This is something alone that would be career-ending for someone in a position like this, but it's just indicative of the way he's conducted himself while he's been in that office.
FADEL: You talked about concerns on both sides of the aisle. Blanche needs nearly unanimous Republican support to get confirmed. Senator John Cornyn has said he's undecided. What have your Republican colleagues told you about their confidence in Blanche and what they plan to do?
BOOKER: I think it is very concerning to them when you see the kind of unprecedented opposition coming forward. You saw a huge group, over a thousand DOJ alumni appointed by Republicans and Democrats, career folks coming out with very substantive condemnations of his conduct in that office. And I think this concerns my colleagues. I've heard it in private conversations.
FADEL: But being concerned is not always the same thing as voting with that concern, as we've seen in the past. So...
BOOKER: Time and time again I've seen...
FADEL: ...What are you hearing in the sense of actual brass tacks here? Are they going to vote for his confirmation?
BOOKER: Let's be clear. I've seen Susan Collins express concerns about a Supreme Court justice and their preservation of Roe v. Wade. They still voted for them. I've seen Cassidy concerned about Bobby Kennedy's upholding the highest standards of protecting public health. He voted for them anyway. Then I hear their regrets for their votes. So again, all of us have been burned by people saying one thing and then voting the other way.
Obviously, my expectations are low, but I will always be a prisoner of hope. And many times that hope in history has shown that people will vote their conscience in the end. We do not know how this is going to come out, but we need to keep pressing the case in the most substantive way possible and hope they do the right thing.
FADEL: And really quickly, Blanche has - his independence has been of concern to you and your colleagues. He told Senator John Cornyn that the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund Trump sought to create is, quote, "dead," but he also said the settlement agreement that created it is, quote, "an enforceable document." Do you think it's clear whether or not that fund can be brought back?
BOOKER: No. It's not clear. And it's not just the fund itself. Remember, perhaps the big sweetheart part of this is that they get immunity for any kind of laws they've broken in their taxes. So this is a big gift to Donald Trump, whether it's a slush fund with that immunity, and it should concern us all.
FADEL: Cory Booker is a Democratic senator from New Jersey and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Thank you for joining us.
BOOKER: Thank you for having me.
FADEL: We did invite Republicans on the committee to appear on the program. Those invitations remain open. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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