Newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche was asked point blank during an interview with Meet the Press on Sunday if the Department of Justice will commit to being independent and not cross ethical and legal lines for Donald Trump. He refused to do so.
Even as acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche hasn’t been running the Justice Department as anything other than Donald Trump’s personal law firm. Trump has been able to repeatedly direct the Justice Department to to persecute his political opponents, pursue charges against innocent people to somehow validate his claims or accusations, and cover up evidence of his own criminal activity.
Blanche is Trump’s personal attorney, and he’s still acting as Trump’s personal attorney. Only now he can wield the power of the entire Justice Department to shield his client. It’s a massive conflict of interest beyond anything our country has ever seen. It’s inappropriate for Blanche to be in charge of the nation’s legal apparatus when he’s the personal attorney of the president.
But Senate Republicans confirmed him for the post anyway despite their own concerns. Now that Blanche doesn’t have to worry about confirmation, he still won’t commit to leading an independent DOJ.
“Can you pledge the DOJ will always act independently of the White House?” Meet the Press host Kristen Welker asked Blanche on Sunday.
“No, I’m not going to pledge that,” Blanche answered. “And no attorney general ever should.”
Attorneys General have been pledging to remain independent for decades because the President should not have control over legal operations. The president shouldn’t be able to dictate which investigations the Justice Department pursues or doesn’t pursue. But that’s exactly what Trump is doing, and Blanche won’t commit to making him stop.
And, apparently, there is no line Trump can’t cross.
“So if the president asked you to do something that you feel crosses an ethical or legal line, would you do it?” Welker asked.
“He would never do that,” Blanche claimed. “He never has. He never will.”
But Trump has already repeatedly crossed these lines. The most obvious example of this is the cover up of the Epstein files. Blanche has refused to release the files despite a law passed by Congress ordering the DOJ to release them. Blanche is also defying a judge’s order to provide the files to the court.
Make no mistake, Todd Blanche is still acting as Trump’s personal attorney and he’s going to gut the Justice Department to turn it into Trump’s personal law firm and persecution machine. His refusal to commit to independence from Trump confirms it.
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