'Something went wrong!': Democratic senator hammers Trump's lawyer in confirmation hearing

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) hammered President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Todd Blanche in the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday during the confirmation hearing for his nomination to serve as deputy attorney general.

Among the questions Durbin probed was whether Blanche had seen the assaults on U.S. Capitol Police officers on Jan. 6 and whether he agreed that those who assaulted the officers should be held accountable. Blanche agreed they should.

Durbin then questioned whether he was aware that Trump commuted all of the sentences of the Jan. 6 attackers. Blanche said he was. So, Durbin asked what he thought about the FBI and whether he agreed the agents should investigate those crimes. Blanche agreed.

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The ranking member then asked Blanche if he was aware that the Justice Department had requested the names and information of the FBI agents who worked on the cases. Despite reports on the matter, Blanche said he was unaware of that disclosure.

"Well, it's a fact," Durbin said, noting that the FBI has begged the DOJ not to disclose the information publicly.

Blanche said he had read articles about the matter, saying, "I don't believe disclosure is on the table."

The disclosure was from the FBI to the DOJ, Durbin explained. There's a further concern that the DOJ will leak the names and information of the agents to the public so that Jan. 6 attackers and supporters of Trump can go after the agents and their families, he continued.

"Well, I'm not there, Senator, but according to the memos that I've read that have become public, it's to better understand what went wrong," Blanche said. "Because in President Trump's view, something went wrong in that investigation."

"Something went wrong in the Capitol too!" said normally monotoned Durbin in an elevated voice. "As we had to vacate the Senate chamber as the Secret Service pulled the Vice President out of the chair in front of all of us as we were executing our constitutional responsibility to count electoral votes. The president is certainly focused on the investigation, but what about the insurrectionist mob that stormed this Capitol?"

Durbin went on to ask how Blanche could justify disclosing the personal information of the agents, particularly after Blanche said that as a young lawyer working for a U.S. Attorney, he had no choice in the cases that he took up to prosecute.

"Do you believe there's any difference for the FBI agents who were investigating Jan. 6?" Durbin asked.

Blanche dodged saying that he quibbled with the word "disclosure" because, as of yet, those names have not been disclosed to the public, only to the Justice Department.

See the moment in the video below or at the link right here.

- YouTubeyoutu.be