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Trump’s pick for attorney general faces Senate hearing later today

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next US attorney general – his former personal defense lawyer Todd Blanche – faces what is expected to be a contentious Senate confirmation hearing today.

Blanche will come under tough questioning from Democrats and potentially some Republicans during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A sole Republican “no” vote on the panel could be enough to torpedo the 51-year-old Blanche’s appointment to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, AFP reports.

Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi was fired by Trump and has been closely tied to what Democrats have dubbed a “retribution” campaign by the Republican president against his perceived political enemies. Senators are also expected to robustly press Blanche on his handling of the release of millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

It comes amid a flurry of confirmation hearings set to take place today. Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, weeks after Trump abruptly delayed his nomination.

And the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold nomination hearings for Dr Erica Schwartz to permanently head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an agency that has been without a confirmed director for most of Trump’s second term.

The committee could also confirm Sean Kaufman to lead emergency and disaster preparedness efforts as Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

In other developments:

Federal immigration officials have been instructed to stop pulling over vehicles until further notice, according to a homeland security source, following two recent deadly shootings in Texas and Maine during which officials shot and killed immigrants in vehicles. More here.
Darline Graham, the sister of the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham, was sworn in to temporarily fill his Senate seat on Tuesday, just three days after his sudden death. Graham was appointed by Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, to fill the remainder of her brother’s current term. More here.
A person died during an encounter with federal immigration officials on Tuesday morning in Florida, marking the third death in one week linked to immigration enforcement operations. Officials with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is a component of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had an “encounter” with four men in a vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store along a busy road in St Augustine, Florida, the highway patrol spokesperson said. More here.
Supreme court justices requested $14.6m increase in security amid a rise in threats. Amy Coney Barrett told House lawmakers that a sharp rise in threats against her and other justices is increasingly affecting her personal and family lives. More here.

Key events

Trump says ICE should continue traffic stops after recent fatal shootings

The president is awake and posting about ICE on his own social media network.

Writing on Truth Social, Donald Trump said ICE agents are doing a “great” job and that crime is “way down” in the US.

The full post reads:

The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done. CRIME IS WAY DOWN IN AMERICA, in many cases with numbers that haven’t been seen in decades. The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted. Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out.

In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.

The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch. I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job. Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America.

Cate Brown

Two US advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, alleging that sanctions targeting Palestinian rights organizations, international criminal court (ICC) officials and a UN expert have unlawfully violated Americans’ first amendment rights.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, argues that the administration’s sweeping 2025 sanctions package has had a “profound” chilling effect on Palestine-related advocacy, compelling Americans to sever professional relationships and abandon constitutionally protected work.

“The Trump administration is using the blunt instrument of economic sanctions not only to punish human rights defenders but to police the political expression of millions of Americans,” said Omar Shakir, executive director of Democracy in the Arab World Now (Dawn), a Washington-based advocacy group focused on US foreign policy in the Middle East. Dawn joined the New York-based Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide in Wednesday’s lawsuit.

The 43-page legal complaint notes that both organizations have worked on ICC submissions documenting Israeli war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza. Dawn has also worked with the three sanctioned Palestinian NGOs and Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur, to publish research, convene conferences and lobby US policymakers.

Former president Joe Biden will publish a memoir this fall, publisher Little, Brown and Company told the Associated Press.

‘Promise Me, America,’ which Biden says will touch upon everything from the economy to his decision to drop his bid for reelection, is scheduled to come out 17 November.

The timing of the book – two weeks after midterm elections in which Democrats seek to regain control of Congress – could raise concerns within his party. Many Democrats remain divided on Biden’s legacy and his ill-fated determination to seek a second term in the White House and leaders hope to keep the fall campaign focused on the record of Republican president Donald Trump .

“‘Promise Me, America’ is about the challenges we faced as a nation. It’s about the decisions I made and why I made them,” Biden said in a video statement accompanying Wednesday’s announcement. “Most of all, it’s about my faith in the promise of America.”

Reports of Biden’s book have circulated for more than a year, and the former president himself has referred to it during public remarks, appearing to suggest it would be released before November’s election.

Dani Anguiano

US officials are facing mounting calls to remove US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from American streets after federal agents killed two men who were not the target of enforcement action in less than a week.

Advocacy groups, including the National Police Accountability Project and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, described the fatal shootings of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas as extrajudicial killings.

“The bystander videos I watched make it clear that ICE agents carried out another extrajudicial public execution in Maine,” Lauren Bonds, the executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said in a statement.

“It’s clear that the only way to prevent ICE from killing us in the streets is to remove ICE from the streets.”

Congress can do so, she added, by freezing funding to the agency and limiting their jurisdiction.