Four days after Senate Republicans confirmed Todd Blanche as Attorney General, his Justice Department has moved on nearly every front the Not Above the Law coalition warned about: moving to shield Trump’s private advisers from congressional subpoenas, reviving a prosecution DOJ’s own lawyers said lacked evidence at the White House’s request, letting misconduct complaints climb, and reorganizing fraud enforcement to answer directly to the White House instead of career prosecutors.
Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Jon Husted (R-Ohio), both up for reelection in November, said Blanche earned their votes because he committed to looking out for their states. Neither commitment slowed Blanche down. Within a day of his swearing-in, his department was building the legal architecture to keep the next Congress from getting answers. Every Republican who confirmed him now has to answer for it.
Here’s what Blanche’s Justice Department has done since senators made him Attorney General:
BLANCHE’S DOJ MOVED TO SHIELD TRUMP’S PRIVATE ADVISERS FROM A FUTURE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS.
Hours after Blanche was sworn in, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel released an opinion concluding that executive privilege can cover Trump’s communications with advisers who hold no government position, as long as those communications relate to his decisionmaking and stay confidential.
THE WHITE HOUSE ASKED BLANCHE’S DOJ TO REVIVE A PROSECUTION ITS OWN OFFICE ALREADY ADMITTED HAD NO EVIDENCE BEHIND IT.
The Wall Street Journal reported that White House officials asked DOJ to consider new charges against Olympic canoeist David Hearn weeks after U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office dropped its case. President Trump has publicly pushed the vandalism theory and pressured Pirro over the dismissal. Hearn’s attorneys said a renewed prosecution would be a case coming “back from the dead” after DOJ already admitted it lacked evidence to win.
BLANCHE REORGANIZED DOJ’S FRAUD ENFORCEMENT AROUND A DIVISION THAT REPORTS TO THE WHITE HOUSE.
DOJ quietly renamed its 72-year-old Fraud Section the “White Collar and Corporate Enforcement Section” this week, formalizing a shift of authority already underway toward the National Fraud Enforcement Division, which Vice President JD Vance and President Trump supervise directly. That division has already absorbed more than half the Fraud Section’s prosecutors and taken control of its tax, health care fraud, and consumer fraud units. Its leader has said it will accept case referrals directly from the White House.
DOJ SENT MONITORS INTO MINNESOTA’S PRIMARY, THE SAME STATE WHERE BLANCHE REFUSED TO INVESTIGATE ICE’S KILLINGS OF RENEE GOOD AND ALEX PRETTI.
DOJ deployed roughly 20 Civil Rights Division staff to polling sites in Hennepin and Ramsey counties for Tuesday’s primary, after Hennepin County declined a DOJ request to place monitors inside polling locations, citing resident concerns about federal officials. Minnesota officials, including Attorney General Keith Ellison, said they would monitor the monitors. This is the same DOJ that cleared ICE officers in both fatal Minneapolis-area shootings before federal reviews were complete.