Attorney General Todd Blanche refused to pledge the Department of Justice’s independence from the White House days after being sworn in as U.S. attorney general following months of hand-wringing from the senators tasked with his confirmation.
Appearing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Blanche, who previously represented President Donald Trump as his criminal defense lawyer through 2023 and 2024 in major criminal cases, withheld making the promise after moderator Kristen Welker asked him to pledge that “the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House.”
“Well, there’s a big difference between saying we will always do our job and investigate any case and act independently of the White House,” Blanche responded. “No, I’m not going to pledge that.”
Arguing that “no attorney general should ever pledge that,” he continued, “I mean, if I were to pledge I will be independent of the White House, what that means is that if President Trump says, ‘I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country,’ which is what he has said, what you’re saying to me is I should say, ‘No, sir, I’m not going to do it.’”
Telling Welker that he and the DOJ’s prosecutors “will act with integrity,” he added, “We will prosecute without fear or any sort of favor. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. And that’s what every Department of Justice should do.”
Blanche’s confirmation was in doubt because of his alleged bungling of the rollout of files related to sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, his oversight of the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that was created to pay the likes of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and fears that his loyalty to Trump would cloud his decision-making.
Welker grilled Blanche over whether he will ever do something for Trump that “crosses an ethical or legal line.”
Blanche didn’t directly answer.
“The president will never ask me to do something unethical or illegal,” he replied. “He never has. He never will. And no, I swore to the Constitution of the United States like every Cabinet secretary has done and like every attorney general before me has done.”
Blanche then scolded Democrats and the media.
“So this narrative that’s mostly pushed by the left and pushed by the media that the president’s going to pull me aside and ask me to do something illegal is completely a false narrative, not true, will not happen, and hasn’t happened,” he added.
Watch Blanche’s appearance on “Meet the Press” below. Skip to the 0:32 mark to hear his comments.