Washington Many Justice Department career lawyers were relieved when Matt Gaetz abruptly withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general on Thursday.
However, a few hours later, Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a staunch supporter of the former president who supported his false claims regarding the 2020 election and claimed that awful individuals in the department were attempting to gain notoriety by attacking Donald Trump and using our legal system as a weapon.
It is now hoped that Todd Blanche, the president-elect’s defense attorney and Trump’s choice for the crucial No. 2 job at the Justice Department, will help shield the department’s career civil servants from Trump’s fury.
His prior experience as a career federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, according to people close to Blanche, has given him insight into the department’s custom of preventing politicians and presidents from influencing specific criminal investigations.
A worst-case scenario: Trump using federal law enforcement as a weapon against his political rivals. Some current DOJ officials hope that Blanche, who, if confirmed, will supervise day-to-day operations in the agency as deputy attorney general, can help avert this.
He is more of the type of person I would have anticipated. According to a source inside the Justice Department, Gaetz is intelligent, a former federal prosecutor, has experience working as an attorney, and has no statutory rape. The source was alluding to the claim that Gaetz paid a 17-year-old for sex, which the former congressman has denied. Little things like that, you know.
Close relationship with Trump
In the Stormy Daniels hush money case, which Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought against Trump, Blanche was his principal criminal defense attorney. Trump became the first former president to be found guilty of a crime after being found guilty on 34 felony counts of fabricating company documents.
Until recently, Blanche was a registered Democrat. In early 2023, she departed Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft to represent Trump in the case. Now that Trump is the president-elect, his punishment has been postponed numerous times and may never occur.
Speaking on behalf of the Trump-Vance transition team, Karoline Leavitt commended Blanche and asserted that Trump was re-elected by the American people in order to alter the Washington status quo.
She stated in a statement that this is the reason he has appointed intelligent and well-respected leaders to his administration, such as renowned lawyer and prosecutor Todd Blanche.
When NBC News questioned her on if Blanche would abide by the ethics advice of career DOJ officials and whether the administration would continue the long-standing practice of restricting White House interactions with DOJ officials, she did not answer.
Concerns have been raised by Blanche’s tight friendship and legal work history with Trump, according to some current and former DOJ officials. They fear Blanche won’t oppose Trump, who throughout his first term consistently disregarded post-Watergate restrictions on White House-Judicial Department contacts that prevent presidents from using federal law enforcement to target their political rivals.
He serves as the president’s private criminal defense lawyer. According to one law enforcement official, that will be his responsibility. He is not there to defend the American people, but to defend the president.
Other Justice Department staff members were cautiously hopeful that Blanche, who was described as the closest thing to Team Normal that we’ll see, would at least stop some of the scenarios they’ve been imagining ever since Trump nominated Gaetz and won the 2024 presidential election.
Because he is a reputable attorney and a former Justice Department official, people are feeling better about Blanche, according to one Justice Department official, but that is a reflection of the low expectations.
As a federal prosecutor in New York, Mimi Rocah, the district attorney for Westchester County, New York, stated on MSNBC last week that she had worked with Blanche and that she was aware of the purpose and operation of the Justice Department.
According to Rocah, he supports the Department of Justice’s mission to act morally, ethically, and for the right reasons. And once he steps up to the plate in that role, I do hope and believe that he is aware of that and will continue to do so.
According to a former coworker, Blanche is a knowledgeable and meticulous lawyer who understands the complexities of the Justice Department and its autonomous position. Despite his relationship with Trump, the individual expected Blanche to be a moderate relative of Gaetz and unlikely to carry out an illegal order.
Michael Bromwich, the former inspector general of the Justice Department, stated that his role as the president’s criminal defense lawyer would make things more difficult and that Blanche would be taking on one of the most difficult positions in government with significant management issues.
“It goes without saying that we have never encountered this situation before,” Bromwich stated. Blanche is having ethical issues, in my opinion. Trump chose him, in my opinion, in part because he gets along with Blanche, talks with her, and they have a connection where Blanche follows Trump’s instructions.
“I believe Blanche’s job will be extremely difficult,” Bromwich continued. I believe that Trump’s use of the criminal justice system, which should do as he pleases, reward his friends, and punish his opponents, is the complete opposite of the ethos and culture he was raised in in the U.S. attorney’s office.
How Trump s first deputy attorney general fared
Trump didn’t know his deputy attorney general well when he assumed office in 2017, and their relationship quickly became crucial and tense.
After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the bureau’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Rod Rosenstein, a career federal prosecutor known for his impartiality, appointed FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel.
Trump was enraged by the decision and criticized Sessions and Rosenstein for it. But after Mueller finished its probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Rosenstein shielded his team and backed him for the following two years.
Although Mueller did not find enough evidence to bring charges against Trump and his staff for colluding with Russia, he did establish that they welcomed assistance from Moscow during the 2016 race. Regarding whether Trump had obstructed justice, Mueller came to no judgment. In 2019, Rosenstein left the Department of Justice.
This week, Rosenstein told NBC News that Blanche would have difficulties. He claimed that while Trump was the second-in-command at the DOJ, he was very hands-on and phoned him personally.
When President Trump wanted something done, he frequently phoned me, the deputy attorney general, and occasionally we were successful, Rosenstein remembered.
That type of connection has nothing wrong with it. Rosenstein continued, “I think it’s clear that the president wants to appoint individuals who have consistently supported him to high-level positions.” It is lawful to do so. Prioritizing devotion over skill has the risk of preventing you from achieving your goals.
The deputy attorney general, however, has an obligation to stop the president or White House personnel from attempting to illegally influence criminal investigations, according to Rosenstein. According to him, the second-ranking official in the department is responsible for ensuring that all criminal investigations are conducted impartially. “If the president or someone in the White House wants to pursue a particular case that the department determines is not appropriate to pursue, sometimes that requires saying no,” he continued.
Isn’t that not hypothetical? Rosenstein asserted that under Trump, it is genuine.
The conservative majority on the Supreme Court in July granted the president complete protection from prosecution in his dealings with the attorney general, including the ordering of criminal investigations against specific persons. However, the attorney general, deputy attorney general, and other DOJ prosecutors are not covered by such immunity.
For the president to call for the prosecution of particular individuals is unusual, but it s not illegal, Rosenstein said. However, it would be illegal for department officials to implement that kind of a request, and so you need to make sure to serve your appropriate role as an official of the Justice Department.
Rosenstein added, There are some things that the president may want that you can t do. You just have to tell him no.
Rosenstein said the deputy attorney general also needs to have the management experience and temperament to get things done.
It requires you to know how to manage the institution, not from a partisan perspective, right? You don t come in and say, Hey, we need to fire all the Democrats and hire all Republicans. Rosenstein said. You need people who actually know how to litigate, know how to put together and try cases. You can t send a politician into court to try to win a case. You need a lawyer. And so they need to make sure they have people who know how to get that job done.
Blanche must also be able to withstand intense public scrutiny. Rosenstein said the media environment is far different than it was when he joined the DOJ in 1990, when career officials or even a deputy attorney general had very little chance of getting any national attention.
Blanche could also be targeted on social media by the president himself if he stands up to him behind the scenes, as Trump has done to his own Justice Department appointees before.
Bromwich, the former DOJ inspector general, predicted that Blanche, given Trump s track record during his first term, is on a mission impossible.
I think it will be enormously difficult for Blanche to balance the orders he gets from the president with what he knows is the right thing to do, Bromwich said. If I were he, I would have stayed as far away from the Justice Department as I could. I don t think it will end well for him.
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