Todd Blanche: devoted Trump enforcer rewarded with top nomination | Donald Trump

Todd Blanche’s permanent appointment as attorney general marks the culmination of a gamble by a man who bet everything on representing Donald Trump and became one of his most determined and punitive enforcers.

Trump announced the news at the White House on Monday. Senate approval will be required for the nomination to become permanent.

Blanche was a relatively unknown lawyer until she joined Trump’s legal team in March 2023; It comes just after Trump was first indicted in a New York state case involving his payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels. A registered Democrat until a few years ago, Blanche resigned from a lucrative partnership in a Wall Street law firm to represent the president; He essentially bet everything on Trump at a moment when Trump was facing mounting criminal charges and walls were looming.

Blanche began her career as a paralegal at the U.S. attorney’s office in the southern district of New York, attending law school at nights before eventually becoming a prosecutor. His acquaintances told him to the New York Times as a talented lawyer who is centrist and competitive.

Blanche’s bet on Trump paid off spectacularly. Trump faced no serious consequences in any of his four criminal cases, and Blanche was rewarded with the job of assistant attorney general, the justice department’s number two official.

When Trump fired Pam Bondi in April out of frustration with the department’s rapid pace of prosecuting his enemies, Blanche became acting attorney general and wasted little time in getting things back on track.

Shortly after taking over, the department moved to vacate seditious conspiracy convictions against Proud Boys, some of the most serious cases to emerge from Jan. 6. The department fired career prosecutors and issued a criticized report accusing them of unfair action. targeting anti-abortion protesters.

The justice department also launched an investigation into John Brennan and other Obama-era officials the president disparaged, charged the Southern Poverty Law Center with a misleading 11-count indictment, and filed a new criminal case against former FBI director James Comey over a photo he shared on social media. Experts say the case is likely to be rejected.

In one of its most significant moves, the department under Blanche negotiated a deal to settle a $10 billion lawsuit filed by the president to create a secret $1.8 billion fund for compensation for allies (the deal was canceled after bipartisan backlash). Blanche also signed a separate agreement granting Trump himself, his family and related entities immunity from tax audits on returns filed before the deal was reached.

He also ran a department where career lawyers were leaving in droves and where judges also served. scolded federal prosecutors for their behavior in a few cases. Grand juries also took the extraordinary step of immediately approving the indictments. I refuse to confirm the fees against the defendants. Judges also accused prosecutors of abuse of power before grand juries.

All of these actions left little doubt that Blanche and the justice department would do whatever it took to serve Trump’s interests.

“Todd Blanche never stopped acting as Donald Trump’s personal attorney. He used his high position at the department to engage in corrupt collusion with the president and his family, advance revenge prosecutions, illegally fire career employees, smear whistleblowers, and attack the judiciary,” said Stacey Young, a former justice department lawyer who now runs Justice Connection, which advocates on behalf of former department lawyers.

“Blanche has abandoned what she learned about blind justice and ethical law enforcement as a career federal prosecutor. Her unwavering loyalty to the president and her destruction of institutional norms should disqualify her from leading the only agency with essential virtue to its name.”

“A vote to confirm him as attorney general would amount to a rejection of the rule of law.”

Blanche has also shown that she is willing to take a hit on the President for damaging stories. When the justice department faced heavy criticism for 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 deal.

Blanche made it clear that she did not hesitate to comply with the president’s wishes.

“As for whether or not I wanted this job, I didn’t want this job. I love working for President Trump, it’s the greatest honor of my life,” he said in April, shortly after his appointment as acting attorney general.

“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 have no goals or aspirations beyond that.”