Todd Blanche arrives for his attorney general confirmation hearings carrying baggage no nominee for the nation's chief law enforcement job has shouldered before. His years as Donald Trump's private attorney, combined with actions he has taken while serving as deputy attorney general, have created a web of conflicts so tangled that senators face a defining moment about whether they still believe in disqualifying standards.
Blanche left his position at the law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in 2023 to become Trump's personal counsel. He represented the president in three major prosecutions: the Manhattan hush-money case brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the classified documents case handled by special counsel Jack Smith, and the January 6 prosecution also brought by Smith. His loyalty during those battles earned him a spot in Trump's second administration.
As deputy attorney general and later as acting head of the Justice Department following Pam Bondi's removal this April, Blanche has shown little restraint in continuing to act as Trump's advocate from inside the building. He signed off on an IRS settlement with Trump that would permanently block the agency from pursuing litigation against Trump, his family, or his businesses. A federal judge ruled the deal self-dealing and referred it to the Florida Bar Association. The New York Bar issued a letter declaring Blanche unfit for office.
The catalog of questionable decisions expands from there. Blanche pursued an "anti-weaponization" fund designed to compensate people he deemed victims of unfair federal prosecution, a category that could easily have included Trump himself or participants in the January 6 insurrection. He oversaw redactions of Epstein materials in a way that exposed victim identities while protecting information about Trump and other wealthy men. He shut down the Justice Department's cryptocurrency fraud investigation unit. He championed prosecutions against critics of Trump, from former CIA Director John Brennan to former FBI Director James Comey to Kilmar Obrego Garcia.
Yet his conflicts of interest as Trump's former personal attorney loom larger than any individual decision. A foundational principle of law enforcement holds that someone who served as a private attorney for a president should be automatically disqualified from running the Justice Department. Trump, however, appears to have selected Blanche precisely because of these conflicts, not despite them.
The test came into focus during Blanche's prior confirmation hearing for deputy attorney general, when Senator Adam Schiff pressed him on whether he would recuse himself from matters involving Trump. Blanche acknowledged that overseeing the weaponization working group could pose a conflict. He stopped short of committing to recusal on cases touching Trump's interests where Blanche had previously represented the president. Instead, he offered to follow the advice of Justice Department career ethics attorneys, a dodge that Schiff and others recognized as hollow. Those ethics attorneys answer to Blanche.
History offers cautionary examples. Attorney General John Ashcroft bent the Office of Legal Counsel's reasoning to justify enhanced interrogation. Attorney General Bill Barr ran the Justice Department as if it were Trump's personal law firm, misleading the public about the Mueller report and eventually breaking with Trump only over the false election fraud claims. Neither man carried Blanche's direct financial and professional entanglements.
The coming hearings will reveal whether the Senate still has any stomach for enforcing disqualifying standards. Blanche cannot credibly promise to recuse himself from matters affecting Trump without crippling the office. But if he refuses to promise recusal, he announces his intention to use the department as Trump's instrument. The choice before senators is stark: either they demand his withdrawal, or they surrender the pretense that the Justice Department serves the law rather than the president.
Author James Rodriguez: "The Senate's willingness to accept Blanche would mark the final surrender of any institutional check on executive power over law enforcement."
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