Todd Blanche Helped Trump Put Stamp on DOJ, Even Before Bid to Be Attorney General

When Todd Blanche assumed the No. 2 role in the Justice Department last year, many career officials viewed him as an institutionalist: a respected federal prosecutor turned defense lawyer who might buttress the department against intense political pressure from the White House.

Now, as he makes his case to be the next attorney general at a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, Blanche’s role as a key enforcer of President Donald Trump’s agenda is virtually undisputed.

Blanche has moved aggressively to carry out White House priorities in the three months since he became acting attorney general, overseeing a department that has investigated the president’s foes, settled Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, and gone after state officials on immigration and election issues.

Before he moved into the acting role, he oversaw a release of files in the Jeffrey Epstein case that was widely criticized for focusing more on protecting the president than the victims of the late sex offender’s abuse. He has also presided over the departure of thousands of Justice Department attorneys and staffers, some of whom were dismissed for working on cases Trump disliked or for raising questions about ethics or legal strategy.

He’s all but certain to face tough questioning on those issues from Democrats at the Judiciary Committee hearing. But two Republican committee members, Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, have also said they want more answers about his handling of an “anti-weaponization” fund that was part of the IRS settlement with Trump.

The president has pressured both senators to confirm Blanche, and both have been on the receiving end of Trump’s criticism. A second day of the confirmation hearing Thursday will feature testimony from outside witnesses about Blanche.

Confirmation wouldn’t unlock any significant new authorities that Blanche can’t already exercise as the acting head of the department. Even if the Senate were to shoot down his nomination, he could still continue to run the department as deputy attorney general, the role to which he was confirmed last year.

But critics say Blanche’s formal elevation would enshrine Trump’s efforts to wield the Justice Department as a political tool, installing his former criminal lawyer permanently as the nation’s top law enforcement officer and bringing the department into closer alignment with the White House than at any point since Watergate.

“There’s nothing to suggest anymore that he does care about the institution or its independence — it’s just: ‘We’re there to bring whatever cases the president wants brought,’” Mary McCord, a longtime prosecutor who headed the Justice Department’s national security division, said. “Whatever hope there was, he’s just swimming in the Kool-Aid.”

Even some of Trump and Blanche’s most vocal defenders acknowledge there’s been little daylight between the two men. But they contend that changes under Blanche have rightsized department priorities and are the result of a president exercising legitimate constitutional power over an executive branch agency.

Mike Davis, the founder of the conservative advocacy group Article III Project who has advised the administration on legal issues, said the Justice Department is not independent from the president and the attorney general works for the president.

“Todd is going to follow the law as he has always done. Democrats only want an independent Justice Department, an independent attorney general, when Republican presidents are in office,” Davis said.

Blanche has pushed back on accusations that he’s continued to act as the president’s personal lawyer. “The fact that I used to be President Trump’s lawyer is just a fact, but I’m the acting attorney general,” he told lawmakers in May.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels defended the department’s relationship with the White House under Blanche. She said that in communicating with the White House, officials followed “longstanding Justice Manual procedures designed to safeguard the integrity of the Department’s law enforcement decisions.”

“The Department’s obligation is to faithfully enforce the law and carry out the President’s lawful priorities consistent with the Constitution, federal law, and Department policy,” she said.

Pels also rejected the notion that the department’s workforce has diminished under Blanche. She said that total separations under the current administration were lower than at a comparable point under each of the previous four administrations, and the vacancy rate was on par with previous administrations. The department plans to hire thousands of additional staffers, she said.

“The Department is also prioritizing resources where they matter most: fighting violent crime, securing the border, dismantling cartels, protecting national security, and prosecuting criminals — not maintaining bloated bureaucracy,” Pels said.

In recent weeks, debate over Blanche’s confirmation has centered largely on the settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. To resolve the case, which Trump filed after he returned to office last year, the Justice Department would create a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund intended to pay people who claimed to have been unfairly targeted by the federal government. The settlement, signed by Blanche, also contained an agreement for blanket immunity from IRS audits for Trump, his sons, and the family business.

Blanche walked back the fund after Democrats and some Republicans erupted over the possibility that rioters from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol would be compensated. A federal judge indefinitely blocked the fund last month, saying she was unconvinced by assurances from Blanche and government lawyers that it wouldn’t move forward.

On Monday, the judge handling the IRS lawsuit essentially voided the settlement in a ruling that excoriated Blanche, saying Trump, his private attorneys and the Justice Department had manipulated the judicial process to benefit Trump and his allies. Spokespeople for the department denied that the parties colluded in the case.

Cornyn, who lost a primary for reelection after Trump endorsed his rival, Ken Paxton, on Monday called the judge’s order “pretty serious stuff” and said Blanche’s path to confirmation “got narrower” after the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina).

“I want to see how he answers some of the questions, not only about the weaponization fund, but the audit and the decision handed down by the judge today basically accusing the DOJ of collusion,” Cornyn said.

Blanche has also drawn scrutiny over the department’s handling of several criminal cases, most notably the reindictment of former FBI Director James Comey over an Instagram post that the administration interpreted as a threat against Trump. A judge last year threw out the government’s first indictment against Comey related to his Senate testimony.

On Blanche’s watch, the department also appears to have accelerated an investigation of John Brennan, the former CIA director who oversaw intelligence gathering on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Last month, Brennan asked a court to intervene prior to an indictment, saying he could wind up the subject of a vindictive prosecution.

Less prominent figures have also found themselves in the crosshairs of Blanche’s Justice Department. Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty in federal court this month to a felony charge involving damage to the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

In April, the department secured an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, accusing the nonprofit of fraud in its monitoring of domestic extremists. Around the same time, the Justice Department moved to vacate seditious conspiracy convictions for members of the Proud Boys who participated in the Jan. 6 attack — a request a judge reluctantly granted this month.

Several retired Justice Department staffers have said a climate of fear and confusion that began with the mass firing of prosecutors and agents at the beginning of the second Trump administration had persisted under Blanche. Morale is low, and many career lawyers and agents fear retaliation for perceived dissent, they said.

“People are afraid to ask for guidance because just asking the question can result in being transferred or punished in some way,” Kyle Boynton, a former Civil Rights Division prosecutor and FBI agent who resigned late last year, said. “There’s a crippling of the civil service within the Justice Department because they’re not willing to work on cases unless there’s a clear statement that those cases are good to go, but they’re not sure if they’re allowed to even ask for that clear statement. That confusion may even go all the way up to Blanche.”

The Justice Department didn’t directly respond to emailed questions about the matter.

Other former officials take a more optimistic view of Blanche’s work to date. Douglas Rathbun, who worked in the Office of Legal Policy and Antitrust Division, said Blanche was a well-regarded line prosecutor and supervisor in the Southern District of New York who’s led the department during a string of Supreme Court victories and a drop in violent crime nationwide.

“He has a long history of being able to garner respect from people across the political spectrum,” Rathbun said. “And I think that when it comes to the way that this administration works, it’s going to be important that he actually has the respect of the president as well.”

A group of 1,200 Justice Department alumni have urged the Senate not to confirm Blanche, saying he has pulled employees from critical work to focus on immigration enforcement and other Trump initiatives and warning that the department could continue to bleed staff. The New York Bar Association also opposes him, accusing him in a memo released Monday of prioritizing Trump’s interests over the rule of law.

Dozens of other former Justice Department officials have supported his nomination. A group of 77 former officials, including former assistant attorneys general and prosecutors, told senators in a letter that Blanche had “advanced President Trump’s core priorities with clarity and resolve.”

He’s also backed by William Barr, who served as attorney general in Trump’s first administration but resigned after challenging Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month, Barr wrote that Blanche “is likely in the best position of anyone in the country to deliver strong counsel to the president and have him accept it.”

Trump posted support for Blanche on social media Tuesday, citing crime statistics and saying Blanche “stood by my side” when he faced criminal charges during the Biden administration.

“Todd has fought hard for Religious Liberty, ended the Weaponization of our Justice System, protected FREE SPEECH, kept Men OUT of Women’s Sports, strengthened Election Integrity, and gone to all-out-WAR against Fraud like nobody in the History of the Department of Justice,” Trump wrote. “He is tough, brilliant, and 100% LOYAL to our Constitution, and the American People.”