Todd Blanche is a Trump enforcer. He has no business being attorney general.
His record at the Justice Department shows that he’s more loyal to one man than to the law. That disqualifies him — full stop.
It appears acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche may have done his squirrelly best to secure enough Senate votes to make his position permanent.
But any way you slice it, Blanche remains wholly unfit to serve as the People’s Lawyer.
It is particularly alarming that only two Republican senators on their way out of the door even questioned Blanche’s nomination. That says more about the sorry state of the GOP that continues to place Donald Trump above the rule of law and the need for voters to stop the madness.
Outgoing Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina had threatened to block Blanche’s confirmation but both now appear ready to fall in line after he confirmed in writing that the Justice Department would abandon “parts” of a sweetheart deal it gave to Trump to avoid IRS audits and create a $1.8 billion slush fund to reward lawbreakers.
The rest of the Republican senators apparently are poised to just ignore the corrupt actions of the Justice Department during Blanche’s tenure in exchange for avoiding any unhinged social media posts from the president.
After initially refusing to do so, Blanche finally put in writing two documents that appeased the slush fund and tax deal concerns raised by Cornyn and Tillis.
Blanche signed one memo that said the $1.8 billion fund “is rescinded and shall have no force or effect.”
However, he didn’t have the nerve to sign the second memo that made clear that — unlike every other American — Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization are immune from past tax audits. (The only concession here is that future tax returns could still be audited.)
Even still, as the acting attorney general, Blanche negotiated the deal that frees Trump and his family from past audits — an unprecedented and potentially illegal perk that may be worth $100 million in unpaid back taxes and penalties.
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Apparently, Cornyn, Tillis, and every other Republican senator, including Pennsylvania’s Dave McCormick, are fine with that Trump tax dodge.
Voters should remember these embarrassing words from McCormick: “I think Todd Blanche would be a fine attorney general.” Particularly because the record says otherwise.
There is no trusting Blanche’s Justice Department won’t find ways to reward Trump supporters. The president promised over the weekend to restore the slush fund.
Indeed, a man who was convicted and later pardoned by Trump after conspiring to block access to an abortion clinic already received a $1 million taxpayer-funded payout from the Justice Department.
As for the tax deal Blanche secured for his boss, seeing how Trump has avoided paying taxes for years, there is little reason to believe he will do so going forward.
Even beyond the outrageous tax scheme and the slush fund, Blanche has never truly stopped serving as Trump’s personal attorney — a role that has enriched and empowered the once obscure federal prosecutor.
Blanche’s supreme loyalty to Trump and willingness to abuse the rule of law to please his boss has tarnished the independence and trust in the Justice Department.
Federal judges have repeatedly rebuked Justice Department lawyers for lying, ignoring orders, and skipping deadlines — actions that were extremely rare before Trump.
As the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Blanche played the lead role in protecting Trump from the fallout from the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Nearly half the files involving the accused sex offender and close friend of Trump’s still have not been released and many that have been made public are redacted.
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As the political fallout for Trump grew, Blanche, in a highly unusual move, personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in helping Epstein recruit, groom, and abuse underage girls.
Shortly after the meeting, Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security prison camp, despite the Bureau of Prisons policy that prohibits housing sex offenders in lenient lockups. Will her silence about Trump’s dealings with Epstein lead to an eventual pardon?
Blanche has also abused his power at the Justice Department by presiding over efforts to indict, investigate and harass Trump’s perceived political enemies, including bogus legal attacks aimed at former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and others.
Federal prosecutors just dropped charges against a former Olympian who was accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a ridiculous case that was ginned up to protect Trump after a crony contractor botched the repairs.
Grand juries have rejected other pathetic cases brought by the Justice Department to punish critics of Trump, including one attempt to indict a man for throwing a sandwich at an immigration enforcement agent.
The cases echo what occurs under authoritarian regimes and underscores that private citizens are not safe from the legal abuses by the Trump-Blanche Justice Department.
Blanche has demonstrated he has no business pursuing justice. Voters should hold to account any elected officials who greenlight such legal abuses.
