Todd Blanche’s nomination to be permanently made the attorney general marks the apex of a gamble from a man who bet everything on representing Donald Trump and became one of his most steadfast and punishing enforcers.
Trump announced the news at the White House on Monday. The nomination will require Senate confirmation to become permanent.
Blanche was a relatively unknown lawyer until he joined Trump’s legal team in March 2023, just after Trump was indicted for the first time in a New York state case involving a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels. Blanche, a registered Democrat until a few years ago, resigned a lucrative partnership at a Wall Street law firm to represent the president, essentially betting everything on Trump at a moment when Trump faced mounting criminal charges and the walls seemed to be closing in.
Blanche began his career as a paralegal in the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York and attended law school at night before eventually becoming a prosecutor. Acquaintances have described him to the New York Times as a talented lawyer who is a centrist and competitive.
Blanche’s bet on Trump paid off spectacularly. Trump wound up facing no serious consequence in any of the four criminal cases he faced, and Blanche was rewarded with a post as the deputy attorney general, the number two official in the justice department.
When Trump fired Pam Bondi in April over frustration at the speed from which the department was moving to prosecute his enemies, Blanche became the acting attorney general and wasted little time in getting things moving.
Shortly after he took over, the department moved to vacate seditious conspiracy convictions against the Proud Boys, some of the most serious cases that emerged from January 6. The department fired career prosecutors and released a criticized report accusing them of wrongfully targeting anti-abortion protesters.
The justice department also jump-started an investigation into John Brennan and other Obama-era officials the president reviles, charged the Southern Poverty Law Center with a specious 11-count indictment, and filed a new criminal case against former FBI director James Comey over a picture he posted on social media. Experts say the case is likely to be dismissed.
In one of his most consequential moves, the department under Blanche negotiated an agreement to resolve a $10bn lawsuit filed by the president to create a secretive $1.8bn fund to compensate allies (the agreement has been abandoned after bipartisan backlash). Blanche also personally signed a separate agreement giving Trump, his family, and related entities immunity from tax audits on returns filed before the agreement was reached.
He has also overseen a department where career lawyers have left in droves, and judges have reprimanded federal prosecutors for their behavior in several cases. Grand juries, who are usually quick to approve indictments, have also taken the extraordinary step of declining to approve charges against defendants. Judges have also accused prosecutors of misconduct before grand juries.
All of those actions have left little doubt that Blanche and the justice department will do whatever it takes to serve Trump’s interests.
“Todd Blanche has never stopped acting as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. He has used his high position at the department to enter into a corrupt deal with the president and his family, advance vindictive prosecutions, illegally fire career employees, smear whistleblowers, and attack the judiciary,” said Stacey Young, a former justice department lawyer who now leads Justice Connection, which advocates on behalf of former department attorneys.
“Blanche has abandoned what he learned about blind justice and ethical law enforcement as a career federal prosecutor. His unwavering fealty to the president and destruction of institutional norms should disqualify him from leading the only agency with its foundational virtue in its name.
“A vote to confirm him as attorney general represents a rejection of the rule of law.”
Blanche has also shown himself willing to take hits for the president on damaging stories. When the justice department faced heavy criticism over its slow and confusing release, Blanche defended the department’s handling of the matter.
And when Republicans blew up over the slush fund for allies, it was Blanche who defended the agreement.
Blanche has made it clear he has no qualms about carrying out the president’s wishes.
“As to whether or not I want this job, I did not ask for this job. I love working for President Trump, it’s the greatest honor of a lifetime,” he said in April, shortly after being named the acting 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.’ I don’t have any goals or aspirations beyond that.”
