When Republican Senator Thom Tillis announced he might not support Todd Blanche’s confirmation as Attorney General, it helps highlight what makes this appointment categorically different from any previous AG: Blanche is not merely a political ally or loyalist. He is Trump’s own personal criminal defense attorney, now wielding the full power of federal law enforcement on behalf of his former client.
The attorney-client relationship creates a conflict of interest that has no precedent in the history of the Justice Department. Blanche spent two years building Trump’s legal defenses, shaping his litigation strategy, and working to protect him from federal prosecution. He now oversees the very institutions he was defending Trump against. There is no firewall, no recusal mechanism, and no independent arbiter – only a former defense attorney with the power to prosecute Trump’s enemies and help vacate the convictions of his allies.
Trump pushed out Bondi after concluding she wasn’t moving fast enough on his priorities. Her successor has wasted no time proving his loyalty. Under Blanche, the DOJ has launched criminal inquiries against Trump’s perceived political opponents, sought to erase January 6 convictions entirely, and openly declared that Trump should be “deeply involved” in Justice Department decisions.
This is what the end of DOJ independence looks like.
TRUMP’S PERSONAL LAWYER
Blanche was Trump’s defense attorney, and is now running the Justice Department with no separation between his former client and the prosecutions he oversees.
- Blanche left his law firm partnership and existing clients to become Trump’s personal defense attorney in April 2023. In his own words, Blanche called representing Trump “an opportunity I should not pass up.”
- Blanche represented Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial, the federal classified documents case, and matters related to January 6. In both Jack Smith cases, his defense strategy focused on running out the clock past the 2024 election rather than on proving Trump’s innocence.
- At Trump’s sentencing hearing in the hush money case, Blanche stood alongside Trump and argued the case “should not have been brought” because of the election results, treating a criminal conviction as invalid simply because voters elected Trump anyway.
- Trump could attempt to have Blanche serve as unconfirmed AG for Trump’s entire term, providing legal cover for presidential actions while Trump tries to evade confirmation scrutiny for his former personal defense attorney.
BLANCHE ELIMINATED DOJ INDEPENDENCE
Trump spent his first term asking “Where’s my Roy Cohn?,” referring to his infamous personal fixer and political enforcer. In Todd Blanche, he appears to have found his answer.
- At his first press conference as acting AG, Blanche declared: “I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime.” When asked about his future ambitions, he said: “If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say: ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.'”
- Blanche told NBC News that Americans should be “happy” Trump is “deeply involved” in the Justice Department. He has also dismissed calls for separation between the White House and DOJ as “the most false statement I have ever heard.”
- Blanche has also justified firing career prosecutors who worked on Trump cases, calling it an ethical obligation. At CPAC, breaking with decades of DOJ policy that prohibits senior officials from attending partisan political events, Blanche boasted the FBI had “cleaned house.”
BLANCHE LAUNCHED POLITICAL RETRIBUTION
With Trump directing DOJ priorities, Blanche moved quickly to prove his loyalty by launching a barrage of investigations against Trump’s perceived enemies – targeting anyone who opposed him.
- Blanche approved a criminal inquiry into January 6 witness Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who testified before Congress about Trump’s conduct. DOJ officials had said no viable case existed.
- He launched a civil rights investigation into ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s primary small-dollar fundraising platform, and obtained an indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights nonprofit, over a discontinued program.
- Blanche secured a second indictment against former FBI Director James Comey over a social media post after Bondi’s first attempt was dismissed by a judge. Back-to-back prosecutions on increasingly flimsy grounds show the pattern.
- He intensified the investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan, appointing Trump loyalist Joseph diGenova, a conservative media fixture and Trump ally, to lead the inquiry.
BLANCHE ATTEMPTED TO ERASE JANUARY 6 CONVICTIONS
Blanche’s weaponization of the DOJ cuts both ways: prosecuting Trump’s enemies while using the DOJ to attempt to overturn January 6 convictions – erasing criminal records entirely.
- Under Blanche, the DOJ filed motions to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, along with numerous Proud Boys members – all convicted of conspiring to oppose the U.S. government’s authority during the January 6 attack.
- These motions go beyond the pardons and commutations Trump issued on his first day back in office in 2025. Blanche is seeking to vacate the convictions entirely, erasing both their criminal records and the judicial findings that they conspired to use force against the government.
- Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced on CNN’s State of the Union that he might not support Blanche’s confirmation because of these actions. Tillis has drawn a hard line on DOJ leadership specifically: “I would never allow them in the D.C. jurisdiction or in big DOJ,” he said, placing Blanche alongside other Trump nominees he has refused to clear over January 6 leniency.