Todd Blanche's old podcast appearance may haunt him at confirmation hearing: report

President Donald Trump's former personal attorney and now pick for attorney general, Todd Blanche, might be confronted with tough questions from the Senate over his "cozy relationship" with the lawyer for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, according to a report on Thursday.

David Oscar Markus has represented Maxwell and suggested she could be pardoned by Trump. She has agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee, but only under the condition of clemency.

And with Trump's decision to reward Blanche with the nomination for the nation's top legal job, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator, Maxwell, have questioned the president's move, wrote Farrah Tomazin, The Daily Beast's political correspondent covering the White House and Congress, in a post for The Swamp, The Daily Beast's Substack.

"Senators involved in the confirmation process might also want to check out Blanche’s cozy relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense attorney David Oscar Markus," Tomazin wrote.

"Indeed, back in 2024, Markus appeared on a podcast with Blanche, who warmly described him as a 'friend,' someone he 'knows pretty well,' and 'the best out there,'" Tomazin added. "When the lawyer for one of the country’s most notorious sex offenders is publicly embraced by the Justice Department’s first-in-command—and that same sex offender is now seeking a pardon —you can see why victims are concerned."