Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the Justice Department’s actions on a number of fronts Sunday, signaling that no new fees can be introduced in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, downplaying Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s involvement in a probe into alleged voter fraud in Georgia, and defending the choice to arrest former NCS anchor Don Lemon.
Blanche, in an interview on NCS’s “State of the Union,” emphasised that the Justice Department is dealing with the Epstein recordsdata, the Georgia 2020 election probe, and the Lemon case by means of established authorized channels, pushing again in opposition to claims of political bias or irregularity.
Blanche stated the DOJ will not be contemplating bringing any extra fees associated to Epstein, after releasing tens of millions of pages of paperwork tied to the convicted intercourse offender.
“I can’t talk about any investigations, but I will say the following, which is that in July, the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the files, the Epstein files, and there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody,” Blanche instructed NCS’s Dana Bash.
“The entire world can look at and see if we got it wrong.”
Blanche acknowledged the supplies include disturbing content material, together with correspondence, emails and pictures, however confused they don’t meet the edge for prosecution.
“There’s a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or people around him, but that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody,” Blanche stated.
The deputy attorney general additionally sought to mood the focus on President Donald Trump, who’s talked about greater than 1,000 occasions in the paperwork. “It’s about a ton of people … that were quoted in the Epstein files,” he instructed NCS. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged with any crime associated to Epstein.
Blanche famous that lots of the allegations involving Trump got here from nameless ideas or unverifiable sources.
“It turns out, there was a number of claims made by either … anonymous people or somebody, for example, calling and saying, ‘I used to have a roommate who told me this sensational story.’ So just, you know, obviously that’s not something that can be really investigated, right? ‘What’s your roommate’s name? I don’t remember,’ So that’s what that’s about.”
Blanche additionally addressed questions surrounding Gabbard’s presence throughout an FBI search of the Fulton County elections workplace in Georgia final week, saying he didn’t know why she was there. The search was associated to an effort by the Justice Department to grab voting knowledge and search for alleged fraud in the county, which has lengthy been a centerpiece of Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“I don’t know why the director was there. She is not part of the grand jury investigation,” Blanche stated.
“But she is, for sure, a key part of our efforts at election integrity and making sure that we have free and fair elections,” he stated. He emphasised that the investigation is being run by the FBI and cautioned in opposition to overstating Gabbard’s role.
NCS has reported that the transfer seems to offer a possibility for Gabbard to curry favor with Trump by supporting his false however unrelenting claims in regards to the 2020 election. Trump on Thursday night time praised Gabbard for “working very hard to try to keep the election safe” when requested by NCS why she was current through the search.
The director of nationwide intelligence oversees all international intelligence assortment. Their conventional role in US elections is to guard them from international interference.
Blanche defended the Justice Department’s choice to convey fees in opposition to Lemon, countering criticism that the case quantities to criminalizing journalistic exercise. Lemon and one other impartial journalist have been arrested final week in reference to a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“There was absolutely probable cause that a crime had been committed,” Blanche stated. “Our system doesn’t allow judges to make that decision … but only a grand jury can bring forth an indictment, and so that’s what we did.”
When requested whether or not Lemon’s actions may very well be seen as protected by the First Amendment, Blanche pointed to allegations that stretch past atypical journalistic exercise.
“There are multiple allegations there, and guess what? He gets to have a lawyer, and he gets to have a defense. If he wants to go forward with the defense at ‘Aw, shucks, I was just a journalist,’ he can do that.”
He additionally rejected the notion that the case was politically motivated. “I don’t even know that the president’s even ever thought of Don Lemon. … We’re not making examples of people.”
Trump stated Saturday he had no data of Lemon’s arrest whereas launching private assaults in opposition to the longtime journalist, calling him “a sleaze bag.”