Todd Blanche Nomination Advances After GOP Senators Cave to Trump

The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed Todd Blanche to run the Justice Department Tuesday, advancing Blanche’s nomination for attorney general to the Senate floor.

Democrats on the committee dissented, arguing that Donald Trump’s blindly loyal former personal attorney should not have the keys to America’s top law enforcement agency.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse remarked that it was a “sad and embarrassing day for this committee,” right before Blanche’s nomination moved forward solely on a party-line vote. Whitehouse noted that Blanche was “probably the most discreditable person ever to seek the office of attorney general of the United States.”

Outgoing Republican Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn, who held up Blanche’s nomination until the acting attorney general vaguely assured them he would end Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund, ultimately cracked under the pressure and fell in line with their party earlier this week.

Yet even Blanche’s former colleagues could see that he wasn’t right for the monumental role. Prior to the vote, hundreds of federal prosecutors urged the Senate to reject Blanche’s bid. In a joint memo, the cohort questioned whether the Justice Department would continue to exist as an entity that serves the American people—and whether the American people would continue to have faith in its abilities to serve them—if it remained under Blanche’s control.

They cited Blanche’s willingness to fire career prosecutors and FBI agents to satisfy Trump’s political interests, his belief that Trump has a “right” and a “duty” to shape federal probes, his mishandling of the Epstein files and repeat refusals to meet with the sex trafficker’s victims, and the DOJ’s $1.8 billion slush fund as just a handful of examples that have so far tanked their faith in Blanche’s abilities to remain independent of the White House.

This story has been updated.

What ever happened to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s reality television show sponsored by the companies he regulates?

In May, Duffy announced that The Great American Road Trip, starring the secretary and his family, would premiere the following month. The five-part docuseries was planned in anticipation of the Fourth of July, and “aligned” with President Donald Trump’s sketchy Freedom 250 celebration. Now summer vacation is almost over, and Duffy’s show never actually aired.

The disappearance of the show has been accompanied by a social media blackout on the topic, suggesting Duffy’s road trip won’t make it to screens anytime soon.

The official Great American Road Trip X account has continued to post generic travel content but has not mentioned the show since May 8. Duffy hasn’t posted about the show on X since May 13, and the Department of Transportation doesn’t appear to have made a single post on X mentioning the project.

Duffy—a multimillionaire with a taxpayer-funded salary—did not pay for the extravagant trip himself. Instead, the money came from a nonprofit called Great American Road Trip Inc. Behind the nonprofit’s funding is a medley of industry giants, including Boeing and Toyota, who each donated $1 million to the project. Other companies include Shell, United Airlines, the U.S. Travel Association, Chase Travel, Royal Caribbean Group, and a range of other companies that rely on the regulatory systems of the Department of Transportation.

After the show was announced, Duffy’s corporate-funded vacation received enormous backlash, which the secretary attributed to “the radical, miserable left.” At the time it was announced, the show appeared in especially bad taste amid skyrocketing gas prices caused by Trump’s war in Iran.

Still, it’s not entirely clear why the project never made it to air. If the show never makes it to screens, a slew of major corporations will have spent millions of dollars for no legitimate reason.

In May, Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, asked the DOT’s inspector general to investigate Duffy’s involvement with the project. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group, filed its own complaint alleging Duffy accepted and solicited gifts from organizations his agency oversees.

President Trump has exhausted almost all of the U.S. military’s long-range precision missile supply in the Iran war. 

Reuters reports that key stockpiles of Precision Strike Missiles and Army Tactical Missile Systems have “virtually all” been used up. These are highly accurate, long-range missiles that cost over $1 million each and have been used on targets inside Russia amid the war in Ukraine. The U.S. has also used up nearly half of its Tomahawk missiles, according to sources within the administration. 

The depletion of these missiles means that any escalation in Iran would require piloted bombing missions, which are riskier and put fighter pilots in harm’s way. And it leaves the U.S. unable to deter other major adversaries, such as Russia and China. In a statement, the White House denied the report, saying the U.S. has “far more munitions than anyone in the world” and “far more than we need.”

“Our defense companies ​are, at this moment, making more munitions than they have ever made before, in addition to expanding their plants and equipment at record levels,” Trump said. 

The White House’s statement didn’t specifically mention precision missiles. While Reuters noted that certain types of weapons, such as artillery shells and other missiles, are being produced at record levels, that still may not be enough for a long-term, protracted war.  

Trump’s decision last week not to launch new strikes on Iran was partly due to warnings from military advisers about the depleted missile stockpiles, as well as pressure from U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf. Last week, the Department of Defense circulated a memo asking for ideas on “creative” ways to pressure Iran. Now we know that’s because the conventional way of long-range missile strikes has been exhausted. 

Republican Representative Max Miller—accused of holding a gun to his wife’s head, scalding her with boiling water, and breaking his two-year-old daughter’s collarbone—has now been accused of sharing pictures of that same daughter’s genitals. This would be considered child sex abuse material, adding yet another disturbing allegation to Miller’s plate. 

It seems that Miller inadvertently shared the picture on Sunday while using Dropbox to upload police reports, recorded conversations, medical records, and a 20-minute indignant video denying his ex-wife Emily Moreno’s abuse allegations. 

“The first time Miller shared the folder, it contained private images of Miller and Ms. Moreno’s daughter and left her name unredacted. At least one of those images could be considered Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) because the daughter’s genitals appear to be visible,” Moreno’s lawyers wrote in a letter to Miller’s legal team on Monday. 

“We write to demand an explanation about how this occurred,” the letter continued. “Whose idea was it to share this intimate image of the child? Why did your firm share it? Did you or your firm vet the images before sharing them? Did anyone? Who? Who removed the images from the second folder and why? Was it because someone realized that it was ill-advised (and in the case of the potential CSAM image, illegal) to share these images with the world?”

This news is the latest domino to fall for Miller. On Sunday, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, Miller’s ex-father-in-law, finally came out against Miller, saying he needed “serious psychological help” and calling on him to step down from Congress and abandon his current reelection campaign. 

“He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter,” Moreno wrote on X. “If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them.”

Then on Monday, Miller received a restraining order from his ex-girlfriend, former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham. And that same day, President Trump—who was initially supportive of Miller—reportedly called him directly to tell him that “things aren’t looking good” for his campaign. 

Miller continues to deny virtually every accusation his ex-wife has made, even as the Dropbox release that allegedly included his daughter’s genitals also shows him describing throwing boiling water on Emily as a “playful incident” and her alleging that she found needles next to his bed, which he did not deny.

Miller, who worked for the presidential campaigns of both Marco Rubio and Trump in 2016,  remains in office and continues to run for reelection, as the vast majority of his Republican colleagues have displayed extreme cowardice by either ignoring the situation entirely or supporting him. Miller has made it abundantly clear that he has no plans to step down. As of now, he will face off against Democrat Brian Poindexter in the general election for his House seat. The GOP has until Wednesday to replace him on the ballot.

CBS’s 60 Minutes had the scoop on Jeffrey Epstein’s sketchy financials—before the Bari Weiss–run network fired the reporter fronting the investigation.

A new report by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden revealed that Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America enabled Epstein by permitting millions in suspicious transactions over the course of the sex offender’s criminal career.

Deutsche Bank AG failed to promptly notify authorities of more than $250 million in questionable transfers tied to Epstein, according to Wyden’s report. Those included cash amounts to pay women in Russia and Eastern Europe—of which the bank retroactively informed U.S. officials after Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges in July 2019.

Bank of America Corp. reported $170 million in Epstein-related transactions tied to billionaire Leon Black. The bank, according to Wyden’s report, noted years later that the transactions had “no apparent economic, business, or lawful purpose.”

JPMorgan Chase, as previously reported, processed more than $1 billion for Epstein, despite internal concerns at the bank.

Yet former 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi had the story months ago, having interviewed Wyden in March about her own investigation into Wall Street banks’ and the U.S. Virgin Islands government’s relationship with Epstein, according to Bloomberg.

But the report, and Wyden’s interview, would never air: Alfonsi was fired by CBS News leadership in the midst of a major network shakeup two months later, in May, when she publicly criticized Weiss’s editorial grip on the storied news magazine. Weiss had blocked a segment Alfonsi previously reported on Donald Trump’s deportation program and El Salvador’s notoriously lethal CECOT prison.

A spokesperson for CBS News confirmed to Bloomberg that Alfonsi had interviewed Wyden earlier this year, but said the story had not been finished by the end of the last 60 Minutes season. The spokesperson did not elaborate on whether the show intended to air the segment during next season.