Todd Blanche entered the Senate hearing room facing accusations that he had transformed the Justice Department into an extension of Donald Trump’s personal political operation.

Hours later, two veteran federal prosecutors reached a troubling conclusion:

He appeared to be getting away with it.

Acting Attorney General Blanche testified Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee as lawmakers considered whether to confirm him permanently as the nation’s highest-ranking law-enforcement official. The hearing was expected to become a historic examination of whether the Justice Department could remain independent under a former personal attorney to the president.

Instead, former U.S. attorneys Joyce Vance and Harry Litman said the questioning often failed to match the seriousness of the moment.

“Todd Blanche is getting away with it,” Vance declared during an episode of Civil Discourse reviewing the proceedings.

“He has not had any significant trouble.”

Blanche faced questions about his past representation of Trump, controversial Justice Department decisions, investigations involving the president’s opponents and accusations that he had placed loyalty to Trump above the department’s traditional independence. Senators from both parties also scrutinized a disputed settlement involving Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS and a proposed $1.776 billion fund that Blanche said had been canceled.

But Vance argued that the nominee remained largely untouched.

Some senators had asked worthwhile questions, she said, yet none appeared to penetrate Blanche’s controlled and sometimes combative presentation.

“His demeanor continues to be abrasive,” Vance said. “He’s assertive, and there’s a little bit of quiet outrage.”

Then came the moment likely to dominate video clips from the hearing.

While discussing his relationship with Trump, Blanche reportedly referred to himself as the president’s lawyer.

He quickly corrected his wording.

“I was his lawyer,” he clarified.

To Vance, the apparent slip was deeply revealing.

“That was a telling moment,” she said.

Blanche had represented Trump in criminal proceedings before joining his administration. Now, as acting attorney general, his responsibility is supposed to extend to the Constitution, federal law and the American public—not to the personal or political interests of the president who nominated him.

The difference between “I’m his lawyer” and “I was his lawyer” therefore carried extraordinary weight.

It captured the central question hanging over his nomination:

Did Blanche truly leave his former role behind?

Or does he still instinctively see himself as Trump’s defender?

Blanche sought to reassure senators that he was capable of acting independently. He reportedly said he did not simply obey Trump and would resign rather than carry out an unethical order. Yet his record and close relationship with the president remained central points of contention throughout the hearing.

Vance praised Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii for bringing greater intensity to her questioning.

Litman agreed that Hirono appeared to understand the stakes more clearly than many of her colleagues.

She was the only senator who displayed “a little bit of energy and fervor and sense that this was important,” he said.

Litman suggested viewers could understand the weakness of the proceedings even without hearing the words.

“You can sort of turn the volume off to see how it’s going,” he said.

The room, in his assessment, did not reflect the gravity of allegations surrounding Blanche’s leadership.

“There doesn’t feel to be anything near the kind of gravity that you and I, and commentators on the Department of Justice, have been really emphasizing,” Litman said.

“It feels like the proceedings are not really up to the moment.”

That criticism goes beyond Blanche.

It is an indictment of the Senate’s ability—or willingness—to hold a nominee accountable when the most consequential questions involve presidential power and the independence of federal law enforcement.

Confirmation hearings are supposed to test judgment, integrity and allegiance to constitutional principles.

But they can easily become political theater.

Senators deliver speeches designed for social media. Nominees avoid direct answers. Time expires before follow-up questions can expose contradictions. By the end, both parties claim victory while the underlying concerns remain unresolved.

Vance accused Blanche of something far more serious than evasiveness.

“Todd Blanche has corrupted the Justice Department,” she said. “He is unfit to serve as the Attorney General.”

That remains Vance’s assessment, not a legal finding. Blanche and his supporters strongly dispute the accusation and argue that his decisions fall within legitimate presidential and prosecutorial authority.

But Vance pointed to one response she considered especially alarming.

When confronted about Trump’s use of clemency power, Blanche reportedly fell back on the argument that the president possesses broad constitutional authority over pardons.

“The best he can do is say, ‘Well, the president can do whatever he wants when it comes to pardons,’” Vance said.

The president does have sweeping pardon authority. But critics argue that the larger issue is whether the attorney general will act as an independent guardian of justice when that power is used to reward allies, erase consequences or protect people politically connected to the White House.

Blanche’s hearing continues against a backdrop of extraordinary opposition. More than 1,200 former Justice Department employees have reportedly opposed his nomination, arguing that his loyalty to Trump threatens the department’s independence.

Yet after the first day, Vance and Litman feared the nominee had avoided the confrontation many legal observers expected.

Blanche arrived burdened by questions about whom he truly serves.

He answered forcefully, corrected one revealing slip and kept moving.

The senators spoke.

The cameras recorded everything.

And when the session ended, the most alarming verdict came from outside the hearing room:

The man accused of acting like Trump’s personal lawyer may be on his way to becoming America’s attorney general—without ever fully proving that he stopped being one.