President Donald Trump’s threat to withdraw Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general permanently and renominate him again after recalcitrant Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are out of the Senate underscores what this confirmation process is really about.
It is not about who will run the Justice Department but whether the Senate will endorse what Blanche has already done there.
Rejecting the nomination would not immediately remove Blanche from the department’s leadership.
Blanche, the acting attorney general since April, was previously the Senate-confirmed deputy attorney general, overseeing the department’s criminal and national security work. If Trump withdraws the nomination, Blanche could remain in control — potentially well into 2027 — under federal statutes governing succession and acting appointments. Rejecting the nomination would not immediately remove Blanche from the department’s leadership.
Set aside, for a moment, that the Republican opposition publicly blocking Blanche’s confirmation currently consists of two senators — both acting only after their political futures were settled. The context leading up to this week’s confirmation standoff is important.
Blanche was Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer from 2023 through 2024. As a former federal prosecutor, Blanche gave legal vocabulary and professional credibility to Trump’s grievances about investigative “witch hunts” and “corrupt” prosecutors. Blanche helped turn Trump’s belief that prosecution is political warfare into a theory of law enforcement.
Then Trump placed him in charge of law enforcement, and the defense theory became the governing philosophy.
Consider the record: Under Blanche, the DOJ has repeatedly pursued people Trump publicly identified as enemies. Cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were dismissed after a judge concluded that the Trump-picked prosecutor who brought them had been unlawfully appointed. Other efforts directed at Trump’s perceived adversaries have likewise failed: A federal judge rejected a subpoena aimed at the Federal Reserve; the DOJ abandoned its effort to prosecute former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell; and a grand jury refused to indict Democratic lawmakers for sedition.
Far from reassuring the public that presidents do not choose investigative targets, Blanche has defended Trump’s involvement. At his first news conference as acting attorney general, Blanche tore down the firewall between presidential grievance and federal prosecution, saying Trump had not merely the right but a “duty” to identify people he believed should be investigated.
Now consider what Blanche’s theory means: When prosecutors investigated Trump, their actions “proved” the DOJ was weaponized. When Trump tells Blanche whom the department should investigate, that is the president performing his constitutional duty.
The only consistent principle in this is who controls the machinery.
That same inversion appears in the controversy holding up Blanche’s nomination. The DOJ entered into an extraordinary settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. The case was sharply criticized by the federal judge overseeing the suit, and Trump signaled Friday he plans to appeal. The agreement included plans for a roughly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that could compensate people saying they were victimized by federal law enforcement, potentially including Trump supporters prosecuted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Blanche has testified that the fund is dead, though Trump defended it on Friday, and payouts have proceeded to people claiming government persecution. Cornyn and Tillis want that assurance memorialized in binding documents.
They also object to provisions insulating Trump, his family and affiliated businesses from certain tax enforcement. Blanche personally signed an addendum stating that federal agencies are “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing broad categories of claims arising from earlier tax returns — even though DOJ ethics officials reportedly advised him to recuse himself from matters involving Trump personally.
There is something almost surreal about Republican senators demanding documentary corroboration from the nation’s chief law enforcement officer because they do not trust his sworn assurances about the government’s commitments. But Trump has already vacillated over whether the fund should survive, and Blanche has shown repeatedly where his loyalties lie.
Duncan Levin
Duncan Levin is a criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who serves as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and is a frequent contributor to MS NOW.