Judiciary Democrats Call for Watchdog Probe Into Blanche Remarks

Senate Judiciary Democrats urged a federal watchdog to investigate whether a top Justice Department official lied to Congress during his confirmation hearing when asked about the dismissal of charges against the New York City mayor.

Todd Blanche, the department’s second-in-command, told a Senate committee in February he didn’t know who ordered corruption charges against Eric Adams to be dropped, or why they were.

However, a draft letter by a top Manhattan prosecutor about the dismissal, revealed in court proceedings in March, indicated Blanche knew about and approved of the decision before he testified.

The lawmakers asked Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, to investigate if Blanche illegally made false representations to the Judiciary Committee.

They wrote Attorney General Pam Bondi in March requesting documents about Blanche’s testimony but said they didn’t receive a response.

The inspector general’s office “has jurisdiction over alleged violations of criminal law by Department personnel,” and potential false testimony “falls squarely within that jurisdiction,” committee Democrats wrote in the letter, obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The letter, led by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and signed by the committee’s nine other Senate Democrats, was sent just before Justice Department official and judicial nominee Emil Bove, who ordered the dismissal of the Adams charges, is set to testify before the Senate.

Bove, who is nominated to a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, is likely to face questions from Democrats at the hearing about his decision to dismiss the Adams charges, which prompted the resignation of top Manhattan prosecutors in protest.

Danielle Sassoon, who resigned as US attorney for the Southern District of New York rather than carry out Bove’s directive, said in the draft email that she expressed concerns at a January meeting to Bove about dismissing the charges before Blanche was confirmed. However, Bove told her that Blanche was on the “same page,” the message said.

Bove was also the subject of a whistleblower complaint Tuesday by a former Justice Department lawyer who was fired in April. Bove allegedly told other department lawyers to consider ignoring federal court orders against the administration’s deportation policy.

The Democrats’ request also comes days before Horowitz is set to step down as the department’s inspector general and become inspector general for the Federal Reserve Board on June 30.