“I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime. And if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting Attorney General, that’s an honor. And if he chooses to nominate me (for Attorney General), that’s an honor… If he chooses to nominate someone else and asks me to do something else, I will say, ‘thank you very much. I love you, sir.’ I don’t have any goals or aspirations beyond that.”
- Acting Attorney General Nominee Todd Blanche
Now that he’s been nominated as Trump’s Attorney General, Todd Blanche deserves more attention than he’s had, which should lead to the defeat of his nomination.
Once upon a time, Blanche had a conventional, solidly respected legal reputation — cum laude graduate of Brooklyn Law School; clerk for two federal judges; eight years as a prosecutor in New York co-leading a violent crimes task force supervising two dozen prosecutors handling crimes including murder, kidnapping, and other serious offenses; then partner in white-collar defense and investigations at prominent law firms WilmerHale and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.
He started on the road to being a lickspittle for Trump — and enabler of Trump’s criminal schemes — when he began a career as a criminal defense attorney. He defended, among others, Paul Manafort, the former high-level GOP campaign manager charged with representing foreign dictators, concealing foreign bank accounts, conspiracy against the U.S., and witness tampering. Manafort was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison before Trump pardoned him.
In other words, he was a lowlife. Blanche had successfully defended him against New York State charges of residential mortgage fraud. After that, in 2023, Blanche joined Trump’s defense team as lead trial lawyer in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case, which ended with Trump convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Nevertheless, Trump praised Blanche’s loyalty, the trait Trump most values in his hirelings.
After that, he defended Trump against four federal charges arising from Trump’s illegal efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and against charges brought in Florida over Trump’s concealing classified documents he’d taken from the White House. The first charges were dismissed when Trump became president under the longstanding policy that bars indictment or prosecution of a sitting president. The documents case was thrown out by federal judge Aileen Cannon on the flimsy grounds that Special Counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed.
After Trump was inaugurated in 2025, he appointed Blanche Deputy Attorney General. In that role, Blanche directed the processing of the Jeffrey Epstein files and related matters. He interviewed the deceased child rapist’s partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, for two days, during which she denied seeing Trump engage in any sexual behavior and called him “a gentleman in all respects.”
After the interview, Maxwell was controversially transferred from a low-security federal women’s prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison in Texas. Critics charged that the move was her reward for absolving Trump and was undeserved given her 20-year sentence for “grooming” young girls for sexual exploitation by Epstein and other men.
Blanche was also responsible for reviewing and releasing the voluminous Epstein files — the federal government’s records on Epstein’s behavior and his circle. House Speaker Mike Johnson opposed release of the files and so did Trump, until it was obvious the Epstein Transparency Act would pass (as it did, 427-1 in the House and by unanimous consent in the Senate). That happened only after the bill, sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), was the subject of a discharge petition sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), which passed the House with 218 votes (214 Democrats and 4 Republicans), forcing the issue to the House floor. Trump reversed himself and signed the bill after it passed the Senate.
Blanche handled the release as if he were following Trump’s lead—reluctantly. The first release was several hundred thousand pages long (out of a total of 3.5 million eventually released and 6 million in the complete files). Blanche said the release “marked the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process to guarantee transparency and compliance with the law.” But the law called for Epstein’s victims not to be identified — and in “numerous cases” they were, inflicting “trauma” and rage among the victims. Blanche played down the disclosures, claiming they represented “.001 percent of all the material.”
Critics said the release was incomplete, riddled with redactions, and contained “thousands of mistakes.”
There were four more releases, as DOJ tried to correct its errors, but the last release — on Jan. 6, 2026 — contained 3 million pages of material and DOJ pronounced the disclosure process ended. ABC News reported there still were unredacted names of victims in this release, and lawyers for victims said there remained “thousands of errors.”
Pam Bondi, Trump’s original Attorney General, was fired for mishandling the Epstein controversy, but in a hearing by the House Oversight Committee, she praised Blanche for managing a “Herculean task with very few errors.” And she said, “I’m not blaming anything on Todd.” But more than 30 times she made it clear that Blanche “was managing the entire investigation.” She said he was in charge of redaction decisions and document review. She said he made decisions about investigative leads and made the decision that there was no “client list” in the files. Democrats said she was blaming everything on Blanche, which she was.
With Bondi gone, Blanche became Acting Attorney General. And in that role, he acted again like Trump’s personal lawyer, not as a servant of the American people. He continued Trump’s vendetta against perceived enemies, indicting former FBI director James Comey for a second time, this time for allegedly threatening Trump in an Instagram posting showing seashells arranged as 86-47, 86 being gang code for “get rid of” and Trump being the 47th President of the U.S.
Blanche claims there is more evidence against Comey than just the beach photo, but he refuses to disclose what it is. He says it is derived from 11 months of investigation, witness testimony, and documents. Legal experts across the political spectrum say Blanche’s “extra evidence” claim is bogus and charges against Comey are weak, politically motivated, and unlikely to be considered a true threat. Also on Trump’s enemies list is Jack Smith, chief prosecutor in both the 2020 election case and the concealed documents case. Smith says he expects to be indicted, but is undeterred in seeking release of his concealed documents report if an appellate court approves it.
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Blanche joined the paranoid brigade and confirmed that the Justice Department has a task force headed by former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova to investigate an alleged “grand conspiracy” of former Democratic officials who are out to destroy Trump and all his works.
Against all DOJ policy, he named a dozen Trump foes who might be indicted, including former CIA director John Brennan, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, plus Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden.
Blanche also played a key role in Trump’s conversion of a $10 billion lawsuit against the federal government (that is, himself) over disclosure of his tax returns into a 1776 (or anti-weaponization) fund worth $1.776 billion available to persons who believe they have been unjustly persecuted by federal agencies, especially the Biden administration. The fund has been roundly criticized on a bipartisan basis as a “slush fund” that Trump could use to pay off friends, especially Jan. 6 rioters (who were pardoned en masse by Trump on Inauguration Day 2025). The fund has not been approved by Congress. Blanche has said that DOJ “will not move forward with the fund, ever.” But he has refused to put that pledge in writing, possibly because Trump still favors it. The chances are that Congress will close the fund for good.
Another federal judge ordered the fund to be canceled. She said she was acting to make it clear that the fund was dead because Trump has said he still favors the fund despite Blanche’s statement that it would not go forward. The judge did not address the issue of the Trump family’s immunity from federal audits, so its status remains unclear.
But an addendum to the fund proposal—conceived and written by Blanche—may be just as important to Trump as the fund itself: a guarantee that Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization will never undergo a U.S. government audit of their past financial dealings—many of which are steeped in corruption.
Congress should be every bit as outraged against Blanche’s stay-out-of-jail-free gift to Trump, his sons, and business as it is over the 1776 fund—and should defeat it. There are now enough anti-Trump GOP members of the House and Senate joining Democrats to do so, even if he has the temerity to veto their action in a huge display of self-dealing.
Thirty-five retired federal judges have challenged Trump’s lawsuit as a “collusive setup” designed to create a political slush fund using the courts. Now a federal judge is looking into the transaction (including the grant of immunity from audits) on the grounds that the lawsuit had no standing because Trump was basically suing himself.
Other Outrages
Bill Pulte Strikes out
Trump was forced to drop his appointment of Housing Finance Director Bill Pulte to be Acting Director of National Intelligence because influential senators of both parties objected that he had zero intelligence or foreign policy experience and was very likely to use the post to aid Trump politically. He had used his housing office to accuse several Trump hit list targets of housing fraud and send criminal referrals on them to the Justice Department.
Trump’s replacement is Jay Clayton, another proven loyalist who also lacks military or intelligence experience but seems to satisfy Republican Senators based on his managerial experience and support for Trump’s agenda. He is currently US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (he had no prior prosecutorial experience either before getting that job.)
He is a longtime corporate lawyer at the firm of Sullivan and Cromwell and a former chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission. He shares Trump’s views on election integrity. He defended Trump’s “anti-lawfare” 1776 Fund on the grounds that Trump deserved some recompense for having his tax returns leaked (though Trump has repeatedly promised to release them but never has.)
He privately carried out some politically motivated investigations, including one to find connections between Jeffrey Epstein and prominent Democrats. In his present job, he has handled some high-profile cases, including the indictment of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on drug distribution charges and some insider trading cases, but none related to national security.
US law stipulates that a Senate-confirmed DNI have “extensive” national security experience. But there is no such requirement for an acting DNI. My guess is that Clayton will perform the same role as Pulte and use his office to help Trump politically, and maybe do it better.
Democrats fear that Trump operatives will look for evidence (or concoct it) that Trump can use to declare a national emergency and call off or alter the 2026 elections. Or mobilize soldiers and ICE agents to police the polls and intimidate voters.
$70 Billion More for ICE
Trump signed a $70 billion supplemental appropriation bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol through his administration without any requirement that the agencies reform their often-violent apprehension procedures, their substandard detention facilities and their failure to deliver on their promises to concentrate their efforts on the “worst of the worst”—violent criminals and gang members.
Whereas Trump was elected on pledges to improve border enforcement, he now has only a 39% approval rating on immigration. And 60-66% oppose the administration’s harsh enforcement tactics. Also 79% believe immigration is a good thing for the country, 64% oppose keeping large numbers of immigrants in detention centers (the current number is 73,000). Sixty-four percent say undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay under certain conditions (including 43% who favor mass deportations). Some of the conditions are passing a background check (72%) and holding a job (52%).
The bottom line here is that by huge numbers, Americans want immigration enforcement reformed, and they reject nativist Trump/Stephen Miller/ICE/Border Patrol policies.
Trump Defeats
The defeats are starting to pile up. He has not, as he promised and desires, really ended the Iran war, which is spiking gas prices in the US (to an average $4.39 a gallon), pushing up inflation and depressing consumer sentiment. The US launched an attack on Iranian targets because, Trump said, Iran was not agreeing to US terms on its nuclear program. Iran responded with attacks on US allies in the Mideast, threatening an escalating war. A federal judge has also thrown out his $100,000 fee for an H1B visa. Another ruled against fast deportation of immigrants to sites far from the Southern border. Another judge ordered Trump’s name removed from the Kennedy Center.
Boorish Behavior as Default
Following a continuing pattern that retired officers call “corrosive,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth removed a new group of six black men and six women from the Army’s and Navy’s recommendations for promotion to one-star ranks. All had long and exemplary records of service and Hegseth as usual offered no reason for his actions. Hegseth has also fired a disproportionate number of black and women senior officers, leading some Pentagon officials to say that Hegseth wants an all-white, all-male US military. He has strongly criticized DEI and banned it as an Armed Forces policy.
Meantime, Trump continued his pattern of disproportionate nastiness toward women, especially women reporters. This time his target was NBC’s Kristin Welker, who has secured more interviews with Trump than any other non-Fox TV reporter. She asked him to substantiate his charges that his 2020 election defeat was fraudulent and California’s long delays counting votes was the result of cheating. She reminded him that he and his campaign had brought 62 legal actions challenging his loss and lost all except one minor win. He barked that she was “either crooked or stupid” and walked off the set.
It’s typical boorish behavior, but it won’t undermine him. His corruption (the “C” word is getting more and more circulation) might. Or the fact that Trump’s overall approval rate has sunk to the mid-30s and he is deeply under water with every demographic group but Republicans (and with them, he’s at 61%, down from the 90s). He polls below 50% in 22 states he carried in 2024 and in 122 GOP-held House districts.
The only good news for Trump is that he’s still above the lowest-ever ratings for Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. But at the rate he’s going, he could join them in the mid-20s.
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