Todd Blanche Is ‘Hardly the Stuff of Attorney Generals’
Reactions to the president's nomination for the top law enforcement job.
Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT): “For as long as he’s been at the DOJ, Todd Blanche has proven that he’s more than happy to corrupt our justice system on behalf of one man — and cover up the crimes of many in the Epstein files. It’s no surprise that Trump wants his ‘former’ personal attorney as OUR attorney general.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA): “At every turn, Todd Blanche has been unable to put aside his role as Donald Trump’s criminal defense lawyer and represent the American people instead. He has allowed the President to abuse the Department of Justice to go after his political enemies with absurd seashells cases, engaged in the most blatant self-dealing by representing both Trump and his government in an IRS scam, and blessed a corrupt slush fund for cop beaters. This is hardly the stuff of Attorney Generals. The Senate must vigorously oppose his confirmation.”

Former Deputy Attorney General Harry Litman: “He was a regular, standup [assistant U.S. Attorney] and every USA … knows you can’t bring reprisal prosecution. There is no possible defense for his championing of actions and cases that are completely antithetical to the DOJ. Is it raw ambition? Sure seems so.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA): “It wasn’t that long ago that it was very normal for members of the opposite party to vote for their nominees…. With him, I don’t believe that that’s someone that I could support. I think everyone was collectively horrified by that slush fund…. I didn’t even encounter anyone on the other side who thought that was a good idea. The attorney general is never ever the president’s personal attorney, and so that would be my concern.”
Former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D): “Todd Blanche doesn’t work for the American people. He works for one man. He weaponized the DOJ to go after Trump’s enemies. He created a slush fund for Trump’s allies. He botched the Epstein files. He turned the nation’s top law enforcement office into a personal favor factory. The Senate must reject this nomination.”
Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC): “Todd Blanche botched the release of the Epstein Files. Of course Trump wants to give him a promotion. Blanche — Trump’s former personal attorney - helped create Trump’s slush fund, prosecuted his enemies, and turned a blind eye to blatant corruption. He is Trump’s lawyer — not the people’s lawyer. He’s wholly unfit to be AG.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsome: “Trump is stacking the government with loyalists. As acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche already gave Trump and his family a lifetime pass to commit tax crimes. Imagine what he’ll do with the full job. Where the hell is Congress?”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA): “Todd Blanche was, of course, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, and Donald Trump wants him to continue that role. He has been doing a complete weaponization of the DOJ, he has gone after Donald Trump’s perceived enemies…. The Senate has got to stop this. This is the person, by the way that the former AG, Pam Bondi, points all fingers at who has been responsible for the huge, huge coverup around the Epstein investigation, the survivors have called Todd Blanche out. He’s been weaponizing, of course, supporting the Jan. Sixers. The weaponization fund that Donald Trump tried to start He has been at the center of so much of the corruption within the administration.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker: “It’s official Donald Trump is putting himself ahead of the American people. Todd Blanche has shown he only works to defend one man — and one man only.”
Stacey Young, founder and executive director of Justice Connection and former DOJ lawyer: “Todd Blanche has never stopped acting as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. He has used his high position at the department to enter into a corrupt deal with the president and his family, advance vindictive prosecutions, illegally fire career employees, smear whistleblowers, and attack the judiciary.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL): “Donald Trump has been engaged in the most corrupt enterprise in the history of the Presidency. Todd Blanche apparently has not noticed.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): “This is a deeply, deeply embarrassing choice. An individual who has completely disgraced himself as acting attorney general and deputy attorney general. I mean, the department is in total disarray. The fraud on the court. The illegal U.S. attorney appointments. The unprecedented professional failures. The throwing out of indictments. The loss to the Department of Justice of its presumption of regularity. Those are extraordinary things. They’ve all happened under Blanche’s watch. He owns that whole stinking mess.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.): “I have to be convinced that Todd is not the president’s personal attorney who happens to be attorney general, but that Todd is the attorney general who used to be the president’s personal attorney.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY): “Todd Blanche is not qualified to be the deputy attorney general, the acting attorney general, and he certainly is not qualified to be U.S. attorney general. The role of that particular position is to serve as the people’s lawyer. Todd Blanche has been acting like Donald Trump’s lawyer, which was his former position, but he has failed to transition in terms of behaving in the best interests of the American people. And we know this based on example after example, most recently his decision to help initiate the corrupt $1.8 billion slush fund, which they’ve only backed away from temporarily because of intense public pressure.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ): “This is a man that’s been involved in investigating the chairman of the Fed, investigating former people that the president has perceived as his enemies. And they’re weaponzing that agency. They’ve even gone after U.S. senators. So, this is a guy that’s wholly unqualified. His only qualification, which seems to be all that President Trump wants from people, is that they are willing to do his bidding and that will act as his own personal attorneys, which he was, and not like somebody upholding the highest law enforcement office in the land.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY): Todd Blanche is “loyal to the president alone, not the constitution, not to the rule of law and certainly not to the American people.”`
Constitutional Accountability Center: “Blanche’s appointment escalates the weaponization of the DOJ beyond what even Bondi would execute. Trump spent his first term searching for someone willing to turn the DOJ into a personal weapon, asking repeatedly, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” In Todd Blanche, he has found his answer.”



