Donald Trump confirmed (kinda) Tuesday what anyone paying attention to the Department of Justice has understood for the better part of two months: Todd Blanche is going to be the permanent Attorney General of the United States.
“I think he will, yeah,” Trump told reporters when asked whether Blanche would get the job permanently. “I wanted to see how he’s received. You know, we put him as acting and he’s done a very good job, but I’ve known him a long time.”
Not necessarily the most ringing endorsement, but hey! Blanche secured the bag. Making the man that left Biglaw partnership at Cadwalader to become Trump’s full-time personal criminal defense attorney endure a probationary period is a wild bar to clear for someone that loyal, but Blanche pulled it off.
To be fair, “how he’s received” appears to have been the operative question all along. According to an earlier Wall Street Journal report, Trump had not decided on any permanent replacement for Bondi and was interested in seeing how Blanche performed in the role. And Blanche, to his considerable credit as a performer, has performed… relentlessly. He has performed with the energy of a man who knows exactly what’s at stake and is not leaving anything in the green room.
We have been watching the audition tape compile in real time. When Blanche got the acting designation, he announced at his very first press conference that the DOJ’s official position is that the president has a “right” to direct criminal investigations of his political enemies, establishing the central thesis of his tenure before his chair was even warm. He announced the second Comey indictment with a full press conference, standing proudly next to Kash Patel, before later attempting to claim he had no idea who the prosecutors involved were, a position complicated by the fact that he’d introduced the man by name. He went on television to defend voter ID laws and somehow managed to suggest that Americans are required to show identification to eat at restaurants, apparently having absorbed the president’s own legendary confusion about everyday commerce.
He announced the DOJ was coming for journalists who published leaked information, which… had strong “Attorney General sizzle reel” energy. He got into a shouting match with Senator Van Hollen during Senate testimony. He has spent months trying to insulate DOJ lawyers from state bar investigations, which, given that he is now himself on the receiving end of a New York bar complaint over the Abrego Garcia prosecution, is a policy with obvious personal appeal.
And through it all he has projected the wide-eyed sincerity of a man who definitely believes everything he is saying and is not at all performing for an audience of one.
If what we’ve seen so far was the audition, the permanent run is going to be quite the ride. Buckle up.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
The post Todd Blanche Is Your New Attorney General. Probably. appeared first on Above the Law.
Donald Trump confirmed (kinda) Tuesday what anyone paying attention to the Department of Justice has understood for the better part of two months: Todd Blanche is going to be the permanent Attorney General of the United States.
“I think he will, yeah,” Trump told reporters when asked whether Blanche would get the job permanently. “I wanted to see how he’s received. You know, we put him as acting and he’s done a very good job, but I’ve known him a long time.”
Not necessarily the most ringing endorsement, but hey! Blanche secured the bag. Making the man that left Biglaw partnership at Cadwalader to become Trump’s full-time personal criminal defense attorney endure a probationary period is a wild bar to clear for someone that loyal, but Blanche pulled it off.
To be fair, “how he’s received” appears to have been the operative question all along. According to an earlier Wall Street Journal report, Trump had not decided on any permanent replacement for Bondi and was interested in seeing how Blanche performed in the role. And Blanche, to his considerable credit as a performer, has performed… relentlessly. He has performed with the energy of a man who knows exactly what’s at stake and is not leaving anything in the green room.
We have been watching the audition tape compile in real time. When Blanche got the acting designation, he announced at his very first press conference that the DOJ’s official position is that the president has a “right” to direct criminal investigations of his political enemies, establishing the central thesis of his tenure before his chair was even warm. He announced the second Comey indictment with a full press conference, standing proudly next to Kash Patel, before later attempting to claim he had no idea who the prosecutors involved were, a position complicated by the fact that he’d introduced the man by name. He went on television to defend voter ID laws and somehow managed to suggest that Americans are required to show identification to eat at restaurants, apparently having absorbed the president’s own legendary confusion about everyday commerce.
He announced the DOJ was coming for journalists who published leaked information, which… had strong “Attorney General sizzle reel” energy. He got into a shouting match with Senator Van Hollen during Senate testimony. He has spent months trying to insulate DOJ lawyers from state bar investigations, which, given that he is now himself on the receiving end of a New York bar complaint over the Abrego Garcia prosecution, is a policy with obvious personal appeal.
And through it all he has projected the wide-eyed sincerity of a man who definitely believes everything he is saying and is not at all performing for an audience of one.
If what we’ve seen so far was the audition, the permanent run is going to be quite the ride. Buckle up.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
The post Todd Blanche Is Your New Attorney General. Probably. appeared first on Above the Law.
