{"id":155630,"date":"2026-06-30T14:09:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T22:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/30\/senator-whitehouse-would-like-to-tell-you-exactly-what-he-thinks-of-todd-blanche\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:09:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T22:09:02","slug":"senator-whitehouse-would-like-to-tell-you-exactly-what-he-thinks-of-todd-blanche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/30\/senator-whitehouse-would-like-to-tell-you-exactly-what-he-thinks-of-todd-blanche\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Whitehouse Would Like To Tell You Exactly What He Thinks Of Todd Blanche"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has written the most comprehensive argument yet against confirming Todd Blanche as Attorney General, published this week<\/a> in The Contrarian under the headline \u201cTodd Blanche Should Not Be Confirmed.\u201d If you\u2019ve been following our coverage of Blanche\u2019s tenure, very little of it will surprise you. That\u2019s rather the point.<\/p>\n

Whitehouse opens with the 10,000-lawyer exodus from the federal government<\/a> \u2014 DOJ alone has shed 21 percent of its attorneys \u2014 and places Blanche at the center of the rot. From there, he runs through what is, structurally, a tour of stories we\u2019ve already told you.<\/p>\n

On the Epstein files, Whitehouse alleges Blanche secured cushy treatment for Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for favorable statements about Trump, a charge that lines up precisely with Senator Whitehouse\u2019s own letter to Blanche and BOP<\/a> from earlier this month demanding records on Maxwell\u2019s transfer to a minimum-security facility \u2014 a transfer that occurred roughly a week after Maxwell spoke favorably of Trump to Blanche personally.<\/p>\n

The infamous Trump slush fund also plays a prominent part in the argument against Blanche. Whitehouse notes that Blanche personally signed off on the $1.8 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund,\u201d attached to a blanket tax-crime amnesty for Trump and his family, a scheme \u201cso rotten\u201d a Florida federal judge has opened an inquiry into whether DOJ committed fraud on the court. We\u2019ve covered this fund from its child-molester eligibility problem<\/a> to its official death<\/a> to the DOJ lawyer who tried to grab his own cut<\/a> before it folded, and even now, Blanche won\u2019t commit in writing to keeping it dead.<\/p>\n

Whitehouse also writes about the credibility hit the DOJ has taken under Blanche\u2019s stewardship:<\/p>\n

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Decades of honorable government lawyering built that trust; Blanche\u2019s MAGA DOJ has singlehandedly destroyed it. Judges \u2014 even those appointed by Trump \u2014 are raising red flags, describing DOJ arguments as \u201cpretextual,\u201d \u201cdisingenuous,\u201d \u201cbad faith,\u201d \u201cshoddy,\u201d and \u201cunconscionable.\u201d When I was U.S. attorney, any such term used by a judge about our conduct would have prompted action; with Blanche in charge, they\u2019re commonplace. One Trump-appointed judge even described a \u201cconcerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That tracks with what we\u2019ve watched play out in real time, including Blanche\u2019s own DOJ getting told to get bent by Judge Brinkema<\/a> when it tried to wriggle out of her injunction.<\/p>\n

Whitehouse closes by quoting A Man for All Seasons<\/em> \u2014 \u201cwhere would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?\u201d \u2014 directed at the Republican senators who vote to confirm Blanche anyway. It\u2019s a big swing for an op-ed, but given everything stacked in the preceding paragraphs, not an unearned one.<\/p>\n

None of this is likely to change many votes. Senate Democrats were always going to vote against Blanche, en bloc, the same way they did when he was confirmed as Deputy AG 52-46<\/a> on a straight party line. What Whitehouse\u2019s piece does instead is hand wavering Republicans \u2014 the Tillises and Collinses<\/a> of the world \u2014 a single document that consolidates the entire case against Blanche into one sitting. Add it to the pile next to the New York Times editorial board<\/a> and even Bill Barr\u2019s own faint-praise endorsement<\/a>, and the momentum against Blanche keeps building. Whether it\u2019s enough momentum is still very much an open question.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong><\/p>\n