In his first press conference as acting attorney general, Todd Blanche said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has a “right” and “duty” to order the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate his political enemies.
The comments from Blanche, one of Trump’s former defense lawyers, are the clearest indication yet that the DOJ’s leadership views the department as the president’s personal law firm and not as the politically impartial and independent law enforcement agency it has traditionally been.
Asked Tuesday how he intended to balance Trump’s demands for political prosecutions with the president’s executive order claiming to seek the end of the weaponization of the federal government, Blanche said he wouldn’t.
“Well, look. First of all, we have thousands of ongoing investigations and prosecutions going on in this country right now, and it is true that some of them involve men, women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with and believes should be investigated,” Blanche said.
“That is his right, and, indeed, it is his duty to do that — meaning to lead this country,” he added, implying that, in leading the country, the president should also be allowed to order DOJ investigations.
Blanche assumed the role of acting attorney general after the president dismissed former Attorney General Pam Bondi last week. Trump fired Bondi, who was also one of his former personal attorneys, in part because he was frustrated by her failure to aggressively prosecute his political enemies.
Under Bondi’s leadership, the DOJ opened probes and brought criminal charges against several of Trump’s foes, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Many of those overt political prosecutions followed Trump’s public order that Bondi go after his enemies more aggressively. To date, all the department’s political prosecutions have been unsuccessful.
During his press conference Tuesday, Blanche said he didn’t believe Trump’s demands for investigations amounted to “pressure” on the department or something that would “keep me up at night.” Instead, he said he viewed them as orders “to make sure that we are investigating every case that we have to the fullest extent of the law using all the resources we can.”
Blanche made the comments while standing next to Colin McDonald, the assistant attorney general for national fraud enforcement — a new position at the DOJ created by the White House.
While White House officials have claimed that the new assistant attorney general position will focus on combatting high-level fraud involving taxpayer-funded programs, Democrats and legal experts warn that the president may intend to use the role as part of his retribution campaign against his political enemies and Democratic-led states.
