Todd Blanche broke the law in his first week on the job as Attorney General

 if he broke the law in his first week on the job

• Public Citizen 

  citizen.org

  From:president@citizen.org

  
  

  To:m.mk@...

  Tue, Aug 18 2026 at 1:08 PM

  Public Citizen has formally called for an investigation into what appears to be a major violation of the law by Attorney General Todd Blanche.
  
  We’ll break this down piece by piece.
  
  PIECE 1
  
  A federal law known as the Hatch Act prevents people with high-level jobs in the federal government from using their position to promote political candidates.
  
  It is intended to keep the considerable power and resources of the federal government from being misused for partisan purposes.
  
  The Hatch Act is not some obscure legal technicality. Especially not for attorney general, which is considered the top law enforcement role in the entire federal government.
  
  PIECE 2
  
  Todd Blanche — Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer — was sworn in as attorney general on Monday, August 10.
  
  On Friday, August 14 — his fifth day on the job — Blanche appeared at a campaign rally for a MAGA candidate for governor in New York.
  
  In other words, less than a week after officially becoming attorney general, Todd Blanche seems to have done something he knows is illegal.
  
  (By the way, Trump himself spoke at the rally. As did his sycophantic FBI director, Kash Patel, in what might also be a violation of the Hatch Act.)
  
  PIECE 3
  
  On Monday, August 17, Public Citizen filed a formal complaint with the federal government’s Office of Special Counsel about Blanche’s apparent violation of the Hatch Act. We have asked for a thorough investigation and for Blanche to suffer all appropriate consequences.
  
  Here’s how Public Citizen’s Craig Holman — one of the country’s foremost government ethics experts — put it to the national media:
  
  “The corrosive damage that partisan hacks like Blanche inflict on the Department of Justice and throughout our government will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to repair, even after they have left office.”
  
  Holding Blanche accountable for violating the Hatch Act is just one part of all the work Public Citizen has been doing since Trump returned to power. That includes 46 lawsuits (so far) against the administration and numerous investigations under the Freedom of Information Act.
  
  
  
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  - Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen
  
  
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