With two weeks until Election Day, Attorney General Todd Blanche has made his priorities clear. He has become a regular presence at Republican political events, and the Justice Department has loosened its own longstanding ethics rules to accommodate him. Meanwhile, the department he leads is abandoning civil rights and corruption cases that protect Americans while preparing to deploy federal monitors into polling places nationwide.
“Todd Blanche’s first loyalty is to Donald Trump, and the American people are paying the price,” said Brett Edkins, Not Above the Law co-chair. “The Attorney General is supposed to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer, but Blanche is spending the final weeks before the midterms on the campaign trail and rewriting DOJ’s ethics rules to make it easier. Meanwhile, his Justice Department has abandoned the work to protect Americans’ civil rights and hold the powerful accountable. These are the wrong priorities. Blanche should get off the stump and focus on enforcing the law, and Congress should demand answers.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Blanche Hits the Campaign Trail
At a campaign rally in Gastonia, North Carolina, Blanche introduced President Trump and called him “the greatest president of our generation.” Days earlier, he addressed the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas. He also appeared at a Long Island event alongside Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-endorsed Republican running for governor of New York, prompting Public Citizen to file a Hatch Act complaint. Attorneys general have traditionally avoided the campaign trail to protect public trust that prosecutions remain free of political interference.
DOJ Rewrites Its Ethics Rules to Clear the Way
An internal ethics memo obtained by PBS News exempts Blanche and other Senate-confirmed appointees from restrictions that attorneys general have followed for more than 20 years. It explicitly allows them to address political gatherings and endorse or oppose candidates. The memo also removes prior guidance urging senior officials to avoid public appearances in a state shortly before its election. Joseph Tirrell, who led DOJ’s ethics office until his dismissal last year, warned that “Americans can no longer trust that Department decisions and actions are made fairly.”
Meanwhile, DOJ Drops Civil Rights and Corruption Cases
On September 24, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division announced it was dismissing more than 50 school desegregation cases. According to the New York Times, that brings the total dropped since Trump returned to office to 57. Nearly 80 percent of the cases are in Southern states. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon promoted the dismissals on social media as a “back-to-school announcement.”
DOJ also dropped fraud and bribery charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who was accused of offering Indian officials as much as $265 million in bribes to secure energy contracts. Adani was represented by one of Trump’s personal lawyers, and the federal judge who approved the dismissal called irregularities in DOJ’s handling “concerning.”
And Sends Federal Monitors to the Polls
Blanche is defending a DOJ plan to deploy roughly 1,000 federal monitors at polling sites across all 50 states on Election Day, dismissing voter intimidation concerns as “fearmongering.” Adding to these concerns, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said last month that ICE officers could show up at polling places.
Many advocates and mobilizers are standing ready to push back if these undemocratic practices occur.
The Not Above the Law coalition is co-chaired by Lisa Gilbert, Co-President of Public Citizen; Praveen Fernandes, Vice President of the Constitutional Accountability Center; Kelsey Herbert, Campaign Director at MoveOn; and Brett Edkins, Managing Director for Policy and Political Affairs at Stand Up America.
For questions about our work to hold Trump accountable or to request an interview with a Not Above the Law coalition leader, please email press@focalpointstrategygroup.com.