Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday declined to promise that the Justice Department would act independently of the White House, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" that "no attorney general should ever pledge that."
The refusal, in Blanche's first television interview since his narrow 50-49 Senate confirmation days earlier installed President Trump's former personal defense lawyer atop the Justice Department, sharpened the question that shadowed his nomination — whether the department that once prosecuted Trump would now function as an arm of his political operation.
The exchange
Host Kristen Welker asked whether Blanche would commit to acting independently of Trump and the White House. "No, I'm not going to pledge that," he said. "And no attorney general should ever pledge that." Blanche added that Trump would never ask him to break the law. "The president will never ask me to do something unethical or legal or illegal," he told Welker. "He never has. He never will." He dismissed the underlying concern as a story pushed "by the left and pushed by the media."
How he got here
Blanche succeeded Pam Bondi, whom Trump dismissed after growing frustrated with what he saw as insufficient action against his political adversaries, the Guardian reported. Blanche had served as Trump's criminal defense lawyer in the New York state trial that ended with a jury convicting Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records tied to hush-money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. All 49 Senate Democrats opposed his confirmation. In April, Blanche said that if Trump ever fired him, he would tell the president, "I love you, sir."
Jan. 6 and election cases
Blanche defended Trump's pardons of roughly 1,500 people convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, more than 170 of whom had pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers. "I'm not opining or in any way saying what President Trump did was wrong," Blanche said. "That is the president's right." He would not say whether any pardoned attackers might still receive federal settlements, though he described a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund for Trump allies as dead. Blanche also said the department would continue pressing states to turn over voter rolls under its "election integrity" program, despite more than 20 consecutive court defeats.
Pirro and the Reflecting Pool
On the same broadcast, Blanche defended U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro of Washington after her office dropped Reflecting Pool vandalism charges on July 31 against former Olympian David Hearn, when Interior Department evidence attributed the damage to a botched renovation. Trump publicly demanded that Pirro revive the case; she has not. "I absolutely support U.S. Attorney Pirro, as does President Trump," Blanche told Welker, though he argued witnesses had also described intentional vandalism at the pool.
The counterpoint
Blanche's defenders point to that same Pirro episode as evidence the department is still making calls the White House does not like. Trump's demand that Pirro revive the Hearn case went unmet, and Blanche told Welker that he "swore to the constitution of the United States, like every cabinet secretary has done, and like every attorney general before me has done." The Washington Examiner emphasized his decision to back Pirro over Trump on that charging call.
The midterms are Nov. 3, just over 11 weeks away, and the department's next voter-roll filings and monument-vandalism cases will offer the earliest tests of Blanche's account of the arrangement.