Todd Blanche: devoted Trump enforcer rewarded with top nomination

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.”