From Trump’s Attorney to Attorney General: The Rise of Todd Blanche

The gist

Todd Blanche has undergone a remarkable political transformation from a vanilla federal prosecutor to Donald Trump's legal enforcer and now nominee for Attorney General. His bet to leave a prestigious law firm and represent Trump at the former president's lowest point after 2020 has paid off dramatically, but his confirmation is uncertain as Republican senators grow concerned about his role in weaponizing the Justice Department against Trump's political enemies.

Key takeaways

• Blanche was a career prosecutor at the Southern District of New York who left a white-shoe law firm in 2017 to join Trump's defense team, eventually breaking from his firm entirely after 2020 to represent Trump full-time—a personal loyalty that deeply impressed the president.

• As deputy attorney general, Blanche oversaw the firing of career staff involved in the classified documents and January 6 investigations; he reduced the Public Integrity Unit from 30 to 2 staffers and dismantled the National Security Division.

• Blanche created a controversial $1.8 billion fund to compensate "victims" of alleged Biden-era DOJ overreach, drawing fierce Republican backlash in May hearings where Senate GOP members told him the fund was "totally unacceptable."

• He has attempted to exercise a moderating influence on some Trump demands—advising against prosecuting Fed Chair Jerome Powell and sidelining Ed Martin's anti-weaponization working group—while signing off on other problematic measures like an immunity deal for Trump's tax investigations.

• The prosecutions of New York Attorney General Letitia James and FBI Director James Comey on weak charges proceeded despite Blanche's own legal advice that convictions were "practically zero."

• Senator John Cornyn presents the biggest confirmation threat: a lame-duck Republican with nothing to lose who strongly opposed the weaponization fund and the tax immunity deal that Blanche refuses to back away from.

• Blanche can serve indefinitely as acting attorney general without Senate confirmation, but full confirmation matters greatly to Trump as a symbol of complete control over government institutions.

• The central paradox: the very actions Blanche took to earn Trump's support and the nomination—compromising DOJ independence and targeting Trump's enemies—are what may prevent Republican senators from confirming him.

Notable quotes

• "He is, for instance, the guy who seems to have talked Donald Trump out of going after Jerome Powell...that would have put a major, major wedge between Trump and senate Republicans." — Glenn Thrush

• "You could try to do this legally, but your chances of succeeding in court are minimal." — Blanche's advice to Trump on prosecuting Letitia James and James Comey

• "What Blanche has had to do to get this nomination...might be the very thing that undermines his capacity to be confirmed." — Glenn Thrush

Worth a full listen?

Listen if you want to understand the structural tensions threatening DOJ independence and the political calculations determining whether Trump gets his preferred attorney general confirmed; the TLDR captures the essential story and stakes.