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The White House Panic Over the Epstein Files: Six Takeaways From the New York Times Investigation

Senior officials clashed in a series of meetings as they struggled to manage a crisis over the president’s refusal to release the documents.

© Alex Wroblewski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Protesters at the White House last July.
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Blanche Was Once Seen as Tempering Trump’s Tactics. Now He’s All In.

The ascendancy of Todd Blanche shows how the practices that were initially deemed out of bounds even in President Trump’s Justice Department seem to be the order of the day.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, during a cabinet meeting at the White House in May.
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Trump Nominates Blanche for Attorney General, Setting Up Confirmation Fight

As acting attorney general, Todd Blanche has shown a willingness to execute the president’s maximalist demands. Whether the Senate will confirm him remains unclear.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

Todd Blanche’s role in the attempted creation of President Trump’s $1.8 billion payout fund gave rise to tensions with Senate Republicans, who will now have to decide whether to confirm him.
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How the Drive to Find a Conspiracy Against Trump Rocked the Justice Dept.

The push to investigate what the president’s allies saw as a “deep state” cabal intent on taking him down set off cascading crises, ended careers and undercut the department’s credibility with judges.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

The F.B.I. director Kash Patel’s “grand conspiracy case” sought to tie together actions by a group of people that President Trump blamed for various investigations into him.
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