May27

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Dem 47

   

GOP 53

Blanche Has Always Depended on the Obeisance of Strangers

Hopefully, acting "Attorney General" Todd Blanche hasn't started measuring the drapes in the big office, because the nomination he's so desperately angling for seems to be in jeopardy. Aside from the $1.776 billion slush fund, which is such an obvious looting of the U.S. treasury to pay off Donald Trump's co-conspirators and perhaps buy their silence that even many Republicans are against it, he's made other mistakes that could derail his chances. Chief among them is that he can't keep from running his mouth on Fox, and that has landed him in some hot water. And if there's one thing Trump loathes, it's underlings who upstage him and do so in a way that benefits the people he hates. A rundown of Blanche's sins:

1. Kilmar Abrego Garcia: On Friday, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville dismissed the criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He did so on the grounds that the charges were based on vindictive and selective prosecution. We have written several times about this before, but because of Blanche's mouthing off to Fox, the Court had earlier found a presumption that the Department of Justice had only brought a criminal indictment because Abrego successfully sued the government and won his return to the U.S. from CECOT, where he had been wrongfully deported. In other words, "You guys brought this prosecution because you're angry and embarrassed and not because it's legit." When given the opportunity to rebut the presumption and show that the charges were brought for a legitimate purpose, Blanche and the DoJ came up with... bupkis.
   
   At the time Abrego Garcia was first targeted, Blanche was the Deputy Attorney General and was pressuring the U.S. Attorney in Tennessee, Robert McGuire, to prosecute Abrego based on a 2022 traffic stop where he was driving a van with Latino passengers who were allegedly in the country illegally. The FBI investigated the incident at the time, and closed the case without filing charges. The case was only reopened at Blanche's urging after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered DHS to facilitate Abrego's return to the U.S., an order the Supreme Court upheld. The administration only brought him back to the U.S. after it had filed the criminal case against him. And that's when Blanche went on Fox to brag about it and say that the only reason Abrego Garcia faced criminal charges is because the Maryland judge "questioned" their decision to deport him.
   
   In his ruling, the Judge begins by quoting Robert H. Jackson, the famous Attorney General who represents the gold standard in prosecutorial behavior: "Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted." The court goes on to conclude, "That is the case here."
   
   As we've written before, motions for vindictive and selective prosecution are rarely successful, but with this administration that is changing, mostly because they are so obviously picking their targets first and then trumping up charges against them (pun very much intended). And Blanche seems to be leading the charge. And the charging.
   
   
2. James Comey: The poster child for trumped up charges, beyond Abrego Garcia, is James Comey. U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie was seemingly getting ready to throw out the first criminal case against him based on vindictive and selective prosecution when a different judge disqualified then-Acting D.C. Attorney Lindsey Halligan. The case was dismissed on those grounds, instead, since she was the only one who signed the indictment.
   
   Last month, Blanche decided to bring a second criminal case against Comey involving a photo of sea shells arranged to spell out "86 47." For that, Comey has been charged with threatening the president's life. The case is—and forgive our use of legalese here—mind-blowingly stupid. Exhibit A is how many people now routinely display 86 47 at every opportunity. How many of those people have been indicted? Exactly zero. And we are far from the only ones who are skeptical of the legitimacy of this case.
   
   Failing to learn any lessons whatsoever from their earlier setbacks, once Comey case v2.0. was filed, Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel ran their mouths on Fox and declared how serious the case was and that the DOJ had been working on it for "nine, 10, 11 months," which rather undercuts their claim that the seashells represented an "imminent" threat. And on Tuesday, the judge agreed to postpone the trial date to October so that Comey's team can file a motion for—you guessed it—selective and vindictive prosecution. And this time, in contrast to Halligan, Blanche won't be saved by a dismissal on the grounds that he's serving in the role of acting Attorney General unlawfully. That's because this indictment is signed by W. Ellis Boyle, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and his assistant, Matthew Petracca.
   
   
3. Grand Jury Tampering: This past week, prosecutors in Chicago dropped all charges against the so-called Broadview Six, a sextet of anti-ICE protestors who were accused of felony conspiracy.
   
   The charges were dropped after grand jury transcripts revealed significant misconduct, including improper "vouching" (telling grand jurors to just trust the prosecutor and not worry about, you know, the evidence), dismissing grand jurors who refused to indict, and improper prosecutorial contact with a grand juror. In this case, the first grand jury failed to indict on any charges, so the prosecutor convened a new panel and explicitly told grand jurors who were not willing to indict to leave.
   
   While the charges have been dropped, the judge will still hear a vindictive prosecution motion by defense that could result in sanctions and legal fees awarded to the defendants. Usually, in cases like this, Main Justice in D.C. would immediately fire the attorneys responsible. Not so under Blanche. In fact, the only attorney to face any consequences so far is Sheri Mecklenburg, the lead prosecutor, who had just started as counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) terminated her on Friday.
   
   This type of grand jury misconduct seems to be becoming routine in this DoJ. Before Halligan was let off the hook, the judge in the first Comey case was investigating possible misconduct in front of that grand jury, including misrepresenting the evidence. And now it's happening again, and apparently more brazenly, on Blanche's watch.
   
   
4. SPLC Case: In another example of prosecutorial overreach by Blanche, he supported bringing charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center. The indictment is so flimsy that the SPLC has filed a motion for—wait for it—vindictive and selective prosecution. Again, it is rare that this defense works. But the SPLC employs some very good lawyers, who know a vindictive and selective prosecution when they see one.
   
   As he does so often, Blanche opened his big mouth and defamed the SPLC beyond the four corners of the indictment, accusing the organization of "pay[ing] sources to stoke racial hatred" and "manufactur[ing] racism to justify its existence." He then lied to Fox and said that the DoJ had no evidence that the SPLC had provided information to law enforcement from its informant program. In fact, the DoJ knew of at least two cases where information from informants was shared and that resulted in criminal charges. That just might come up in the defense's motion. The SPLC is also interested in the grand jury transcripts, since the indictment doesn't allege all the necessary elements for the crimes charged, which could indicate further grand jury misconduct if prosecutors were nonetheless still able to secure enough votes to indict.
   
   
5. Audit-Free Zone: And then there is that promise to stop audits into Donald Trump, his family and his businesses. While the IRS Commissioner signed off on the slush fund, Blanche is the only one who signed the little side agreement immunizing all of Trump's past tax returns from scrutiny. There's a clear federal law prohibiting exactly these types of agreements. It's also unclear whether this "deal" is worth the paper it's printed on—the next AG could simply rip it up and reinstate the audits that are currently underway.
   
   More importantly this, along with the slush fund, could also be the straw that breaks the camel's back with respect to Senate Republicans, finally getting them to push back. Remember, Blanche met with Republicans before the Memorial Day break to convince them to support this grift and they were not having it. If Blanche is responsible for Republicans finally finding their spines, Trump will not be happy (because, naturally, it can't possibly be his greed that's the problem). And Blanche could be in legal jeopardy for violating the law in signing off on this agreement.
   
   
6. Conflicts of Interest: With all of this behavior that is so clearly meant to benefit Trump personally and that is anathema to an independent Department of Justice that is supposed to be working on behalf of the American people, Blanche clearly considers himself Trump's personal attorney first. In fact, there's no indication that Blanche has stopped representing Trump. And he was warned about potential conflicts of interest last year, shortly after he became Deputy AG in March 2025. In a memo by Joseph Tirrell, the DoJ's top ethics lawyer, Blanche was advised that he would need to recuse himself from all cases involving Trump. That includes the investigations of those Trump has sought to be prosecuted.
   
   In a statement, the DoJ claimed that "in any cases that are still ongoing where [Blanche] previously represented someone, he is recused." But that is not true. Blanche had no problem advocating for Trump, instead of defending the government, in the creation of the slush fund to allegedly "settle" Trump's bogus case against the IRS, a case that was withdrawn before its legitimacy could be tested in court. Of course, Trump has a ready solution to any ethics problems—simply fire the lawyers who raise these issues. Tirrell was fired in July 2025 and most of the department's career ethics staff and its office of professional responsibility was gutted. But that doesn't change the fact that Blanche could find himself with some serious legal and ethical problems from a future AG or the D.C. bar. And a pardon won't help him keep his law license. But maybe he doesn't care about that—maybe he anticipates a future as a Fox commentator or podcaster. You can broadcast/podcast from prison, right?
   
   
7. The Senate: As we've written before, Blanche seems to be under the impression that the only opinion who matters in all this is Trump's and that if he is nominated for the permanent job, Senate Republicans will, in the end, vote the way Trump tells them to. He may be right—we've certainly seen that movie a number of times and an astonishingly high number of corrupt and incompetent cabinet members have been easily confirmed—but it's a big gamble at this stage. Again, as we note above, there is now a cadre of four senators—Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell and Thom Tills—over whom Trump has no real power anymore. Add in Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who needs some non-MAGA votes to be reelected, and Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and Lisa Murkowski, who are moderates who hate corruption, and Blanche's path looks to be full of serious obstacles. Cashiering Blanche's nomination would be an easy way for these folks to send a message to Trump that he's gotten out of control with the sleazy behavior.
   
   And note, any sleazy AG nominee—say, Jeannine Pirro—might get this treatment. The senators are particularly unhappy about the slush fund, of which Blanche was the architect, either because they honestly hate the idea, or they just don't want to be seen as supporting it by voting for Blanche. So, the would-be AG is considerably more odious than most candidates Trump might sent to the Senate for consideration.

When Blanche looks in the mirror, we have no doubt he sees a future AG. And Trump probably likes that idea, since Blanche is somehow even more corrupt than Pam Bondi was. However, Trump also hates to be embarrassed, and he might not want to nominate someone who will go down in flames. And even if Trump takes his chances, Blanche might go down in flames anyhow. In our view, then, the big job is probably not in Blanche's future. On the other hand, a stint as a guest of Uncle Sam's Crowbar Motel seems very possible, indeed. (L & Z)