Washington, DC — 

During his first news conference Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche showcased his loyalty to President Donald Trump while declining to answer specific questions about the war with Iran, why Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired or other investigations into the president’s enemies.

“I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime,” Blanche said when asked whether he wanted to be nominated as the full-time attorney general. “If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say: ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.’”

When asked why Bondi was fired and how the DOJ will change, Blanche was dismissive.

“I’m going to lead the way that I’ve been leading as the deputy attorney general,” said Blanche, a former Trump defense attorney.

“Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I’m the acting attorney general except for President Trump,” Blanche added.

Beyond her failure to successfully bring cases against Trump’s personal and political enemies, Bondi’s standing was harmed her drastic and self-inflicted stumbles in handling the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

When asked about Bondi’s outstanding House Oversight Committee subpoena over the botched handling of the Epstein investigation, Blanche said he would said he would leave the matter “to Chairman (James) Comer and others to figure out.”

Blanche said he didn’t know whether the Justice Department would assert privilege in the matter in an effort to stop the subpoena.

“I’m not committing to anything,” he said. “I’m just saying I don’t know.”

Backs the White House and Pentagon on Iran

Blanche, in a news conference meant to focus on efforts to investigate and prosecute fraud in the US, decline to answer a question on the Justice Department’s position on preemptivearguments that Trump might be committing war crimes if he follows through with, as he said Tuesday, killing “a whole civilization” Tuesday night in Iran, barring a deal.

The interim DOJ head said the Justice Department supports the White House and Department of Defense and provides “counsel to them, and we have been doing that, as you would expect.”

CNN also pressed Blanche on what, if any, investigative steps have been taken after Trump threatened to jail an unspecified reporter as part of a hunt for the “leaker” behind initial reports Friday of the missing Air Force officers in Iran.

Two officers went missing after their US fighter jet was downed in Iran. Both have since been rescued.

While first saying he wouldn’t comment on ongoing investigations, Blanche noted that “we will always investigate” leaks involving classified information, especially those that put US soldiers at risk.

“And we will investigate if it means sending a subpoena to the reporter,” Blanche said. “That’s exactly what we should do, and that’s exactly what we will be doing.”

CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.

INDIANAPOLIS — High-scoring Michigan had to get down and dirty to dig out the national title Monday, making only two 3-pointers all night but still muscling its way to a 69-63 victory over stingy, stubborn UConn.

Elliot Cadeau led the Wolverines with 19 points, including the team’s first 3, which came 7:04 into the second half. The second, from freshman Trey McKenney, came with 1:50 left and felt like a dagger, giving the coach Dusty May’s team full of transfers a nine-point lead.

To no one’s surprise, UConn fought to the finish. Solo Ball banked in a 3 to cut it to four with 37 seconds left — and after two missed free throws, UConn’s Alex Karaban (17 points) barely grazed the rim on a 3 that would’ve cut the deficit to one with 17 seconds left.

Michigan also got outrebounded 22-12 on the offensive glass by a UConn team that would not go away. Not until McKenney sank two free throws to bring Michigan’s shooting from the line to 25 for 28 for the night could the Wolverines (37-3) kick off the celebration for the program’s second title — the other coming in 1989.

But this game had a 1950s feel to it.

“If you’d told me we would shoot it this poorly and (be) dominated on the glass and still find a way to win, I don’t know if I would have believed you,” May said. “This team just found a way all season.”

Michigan’s Trey McKenney, left, and Elliot Cadeau celebrate during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game against UConn at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis.

Michael Conroy/AP

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Michigan had to fight for everything. The Wolverines missed their first 11 shots from 3, finished 2 for 15 from there and won despite the struggles of their best player, Yaxel Lendeborg. Ailing with a hurt knee and foot that kept him from elevating, the graduate transfer from UAB finished with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

Truth be told, it wasn’t anyone’s prettiest night.

UConn’s hopes at becoming the first team since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty to win three titles in four seasons came up short, done in by massive foul trouble and its own terrible shooting.

Coach Dan Hurley’s team shot 30.9% from the floor and missed its first 11 shots from 3 in the second half.

Braylon Mullins, the hero of the Duke win that put UConn in the Final Four, finished 4 of 17, though he made a pair of late 3s that kept the game in reach.

UConn (35-5) covered the 6 1/2-point spread, and Hurley kept his players out on the court to watch the podium get set up for the presentation of a trophy heading not to Storrs, but Ann Arbor.

Members of Michigan celebrate after defeating UConn in the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis.

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About the only consolation: The Huskies clogged things up, slowed things down and made Michigan beat them at their game.

The Wolverines came in as the first team to crack 90 points in five straight high-flying tournament blowouts. They didn’t hit 70 in this one but, in almost every way, it was the prettiest of them all — the one that gives them what even Michigan’s most famous teams, the Fab Five, couldn’t manage — namely, a natty.

Style points aside, this was a championship built from outside — the best team money could buy.

All five Wolverines starters played college ball elsewhere, and all but Nimari Burnett came to Ann Arbor this season. That’s the product of the transfer portal that May has shown no reluctance to use. His ability to form a makeshift group into a winner is still the value of a coach and a culture.

“They might be still calling us mercenaries but we’re the hardest-working team,” Lendenborg said. “We’re the best in college basketball and we’ll be one of the greatest ever.”

A minor earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.5 struck in Southern California on Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 2:06 p.m. Pacific time about 9 miles north of Tecate, Mexico, data from the agency shows.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.