Todd Blanche wants to be attorney general – and he’s going all in on Trump’s retaliation agenda to prove it Trump’s former personal attorney has left little doubt about how he’d further politicize the Justice Department if his status becomes permanent. In just a few weeks as acting attorney general, Todd Blanche has aggressively moved to deploy the department’s resources to please Donald Trump. This includes firing four career prosecutors less than two weeks after taking over and hiring Trump ally Joe diGenova to oversee investigations into figures like former CIA director John Brennan. Blanche was named acting attorney general earlier this month after Trump fired Pam Bondi, reportedly due to frustration over the lack of progress in prosecuting the president’s political enemies. Blanche told Trump he would like the job permanently and Trump described his interim tenure as an audition, according to Fox News. During his confirmation hearing to become deputy attorney general, Blanche criticized the criminal cases against Trump as “partisan lawfare,” while Democrats questioned his ability to resist White House pressure. Blanche previously served as Trump’s lead defense lawyer in the New York hush money case and other federal criminal cases in 2023 and 2024. Those federal cases were withdrawn after Trump won the 2024 election, in line with longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the federal prosecution of a sitting president.
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