Todd Blanche was Trump’s criminal lawyer. Now he wants to run the DOJ.
đź’Ą America Needs an Attorney General—Not Trump’s Fixer
Todd Blanche was Trump’s criminal lawyer. Now he wants to run the DOJ. Learn why senators must reject his nomination and defend equal justice.
đź—˝Tell Your Senators: Vote NO on Todd Blanche for Attorney General
America Needs an Attorney General—Not Trump’s Personal Fixer With a Federal Badge
Friends,
Heads up: Today’s piece is a little longer, but it is necessary to ensure you have all the relevant information about Todd Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General—and why it demands our immediate attention.
Todd Blanche was Donald Trump’s criminal-defense lawyer. He represented Trump in three of his four criminal cases. Now he is running the Justice Department that prosecuted his former client and is asking the Senate to make that power permanent.
Blanche may hold the title of Acting Attorney General, but his record reads like that of Donald Trump’s personal fixer with a federal badge.
The Attorney General is supposed to represent the United States—not the president personally. The office exists to uphold the Constitution, protect civil rights, pursue public corruption, investigate abuses of federal power, and administer justice without fear or favor.
Every senator now has to answer one defining question:
Does the Justice Department serve the American people—or does it serve Donald Trump?
Blanche Never Stopped Being Trump’s Lawyer
During his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Republican Senator John Kennedy asked Blanche whether he considered Trump a friend.
Blanche answered instinctively:
“I’m his lawyer.”
Then he caught himself and changed his answer to: “I was his lawyer.”
That was not merely a clumsy slip. It was a burst of accidental honesty from a man whose actions repeatedly suggest that he still sees Trump as his client.
The Justice Department’s own ethics officials recognized the danger. Less than two weeks after Blanche became Deputy Attorney General in March 2025, the department’s top career ethics lawyer, Joseph Tirrell, formally advised Blanche that recusal was necessary in matters involving Trump personally. The DOJ later claimed Blanche was complying and had recused himself from “many” matters—but refused to identify which ones. Tirrell was subsequently fired, and the department reduced its career ethics staff.
There is no public evidence that Blanche personally ordered Tirrell’s firing—but the message could not be clearer. The career ethics official who warned Blanche about his conflicts was pushed out, the Justice Department refuses to reveal which Trump-related matters Blanche has recused himself from, and senators are now investigating whether he ignored the department’s ethics guidance. An ethical firewall means nothing when the watchdog is removed, the rules are hidden, and the official facing the conflict is left to police himself.
An Attorney General cannot impartially supervise investigations involving a president he recently defended against criminal prosecution—especially when he refuses to show the public where the representation ended, and the public service began.
Tell the Senate: Vote NO on Todd Blanche for Attorney General
Todd Blanche Is Trump’s Epstein Fixer
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi testified under oath before the House Oversight Committee that Blanche led the Justice Department’s Epstein matter and document release from the beginning, participated in redaction decisions and oversaw the entire investigation.
That record belongs to Blanche.
The Justice Department said it identified more than six million potentially responsive pages but publicly released approximately 3.5 million. That means roughly 2.5 million Epstein document pages have not been released to the public. The Justice Department under Todd Blanche argues that many excluded materials were duplicates, privileged records, victim-identifying information or otherwise lawfully withheld. But lawmakers, survivors and transparency advocates continue to dispute the department’s claim that it fully complied with the law.
A CBS News analysis found that approximately 47,000 files—representing more than 65,000 pages—were removed from the department’s public database. The Justice Department also failed to complete the release by the law’s December 2025 deadline, and its own inspector general has now opened an official audit of DOJ’s compliance, redaction and release process.
In June, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan granted a preliminary injunction and ordered Blanche’s department to release less-redacted documents or justify the redactions. The court also directed DOJ to address underlying FBI interview notes, review foreign-language materials, and publish the redaction log required by the transparency law.
Todd Blanche also personally conducted an extraordinary prison interview with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, during which she received limited immunity for truthful answers. One week later, the Bureau of Prisons transferred Maxwell to a minimum-security prison camp.
To be clear, the public record does not establish that Blanche personally ordered Maxwell’s transfer. But it smells fishy. Bondi testified that transfers are handled by the Bureau of Prisons and said she did not know of a connection between the interview and the move. But the timing, Blanche’s unusual personal involvement and the lack of convincing public explanations demand independent scrutiny—not blind trust.
Additionally, Todd Blanche initially refused to make a firm commitment to meet with Epstein survivors. It took Republican Senator Thom Tillis threatening to withhold his confirmation vote to get him into the room.
Afterward, survivor Annie Farmer said Todd Blanche had been “abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal.” She said he refused to commit to examining why her sister Maria Farmer’s 1996 report went uninvestigated, would not release records explaining previous charging decisions, and gave unsatisfactory answers about his Maxwell interview and her subsequent transfer. (Read Farmer’s account.)
Survivors were seeking the truth, accountability, and an Attorney General with the courage to follow the evidence wherever it leads—even when it implicates the powerful.
Instead, they got Trump’s former lawyer explaining why the Justice Department could not give them the justice they had sought for decades.
Take Action and Tell the Senate: Vote NO on Todd Blanche for Attorney General
Todd Blanche Helped Engineer a $1.8 Billion IRS Deal for Trump
Blanche’s most brazen abuse may be the extraordinary settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against his own Internal Revenue Service.
The agreement proposed a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” for people claiming to be victims of government “lawfare.” A five-person commission would have controlled compensation—and Blanche would have directly appointed four of its five members.
The same agreement purported to permanently block the IRS from auditing past tax claims involving Trump, his relatives and his businesses. That was no ordinary legal settlement.
The agreement sought by Trump and Todd Blanche would use $1.8 billion in taxpayer money to shield Trump’s family empire from tax audits, reward January 6 insurrectionists for their actions, and distribute the funds with limited oversight or accountability.
As bipartisan scrutiny mounted, Todd Blanche has repeatedly declared that the anti-weaponization fund was “dead”—but refused to sign the paperwork that would actually kill it. A federal judge rejected his empty assurances and indefinitely blocked the fund after Blanche failed to rescind it formally. Then, under questioning from Senator John Cornyn, Todd Blanche admitted that no written modification existed, leaving Trump’s lawyers free to attempt to enforce the original agreement. Blanche wanted credit for ending the scheme while quietly preserving the legal machinery that could bring it back.
Later, on July 13, Judge Kathleen Williams found that Trump and the government were never genuinely adverse parties, and concluded that lawyers on both sides had misused the courts to obtain benefits for Trump and his allies, and barred the parties from invoking the settlement in future proceedings. Her ruling could nullify the audit shield that Todd Blanche’s DOJ had previously preserved even after abandoning the fund. She also referred participating attorneys and senior DOJ officials who approved the arrangement to state disciplinary authorities.
Blanche had the power to shut this sham down. Instead, he defended it, refused to terminate it permanently, and preserved its benefits for Trump until a federal judge stepped in.
That is not impartial justice.
That is a government lawyer using public power to protect his former private client.
Only after Blanche’s nomination was in danger did he finally do what senators, federal judges, and the public had demanded for weeks.
On August 2, Blanche signed a formal order rescinding the May 18 directive that established the “anti-weaponization fund.” The order states that no commissioners were appointed, no money was transferred, no claims process was created, and no payments were made. Todd Blanche also clarified that the tax-release agreement applies only retroactively, only to the parties named in Trump’s IRS lawsuit, and not to future tax filings. (Read the DOJ order.)
That does not vindicate Blanche. It proves that sustained public and congressional pressure worked.
Even now, legal questions remain. Blanche’s new order rescinds the directive implementing the fund, but Axios reports that it does not amend the underlying settlement provision requiring the Attorney General to create it. That settlement can be modified only through a written agreement involving both the government and the Trump parties—and the August 2 order was signed only by Blanche.
Todd Blanche could have terminated the fund immediately. Instead, he defended the settlement, refused repeated requests to put its cancellation in binding written form, and acted only when Republican defections threatened his promotion.
Todd Blanche is not protecting America’s best interests. His conduct and loyalty are to server Donald Trump’s best interests.
Tell the Senate: Vote NO on Todd Blanche for Attorney General
Todd Blanche Is Trying to Erase January 6 From the Record
Trump’s mass pardons and commutations already freed more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6 attack—including people convicted of assaulting police officers.
Todd Blanche’s Justice Department is now attempting to go even further.
The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to vacate seditious-conspiracy convictions involving leaders and members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and to allow the government to dismiss the indictments permanently and overlook their organizing violent efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Trump’s clemency allowed them to walk free. Todd Blanche’s DOJ now wants to wipe away the judicial findings themselves.
That is not mercy. It is an attempt to erase the evidence, rewrite history, and turn accountability for an attack on democracy into another favor for Trump’s political movement.
Todd Blanche Shields Federal Agents and Targets the Officials Demanding Answers
Let’s be clear, the Attorney General does not control ICE-it sits under the Department of Homeland Security. But when federal agents violate civil rights or use unlawful force, the Justice Department is supposed to investigate, preserve the evidence, and pursue accountability. Todd Blanche leads that department, and his record shows exactly why he cannot be trusted with that power: he shields federal agents, dismisses demands for justice, and treats accountability as a threat to the administration instead of a duty owed to the American people.
Todd Blanche’s record shows why he cannot be trusted as attorney general.
After an ICE officer fatally shot RenĂ©e Good in Minnesota, Blanche declared that there was no basis for a federal criminal civil-rights investigation. The department of Justice did not open a probe into Good’s death.
After a federal agent killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti, Todd Blanche appeared on national television and insisted that “our agents are acting humanely.” He blamed Minnesota’s governor and Minneapolis’ mayor, describing Pretti’s death as avoidable had local officials cooperated with federal enforcement. The Justice department later opened a civil-rights investigation into Pretti’s shooting—but only after Blanche had publicly defended agents before the investigation was complete. (Read the documented timeline.)
Federal officials then withheld key evidence from Minnesota investigators for months. Only after Minnesota sued did the Trump administration turn over body-camera footage, vehicles and other evidence related to the Good and Pretti killings.
At the same time, Todd Blanche publicly accused Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey of “terrorism” and promised to stop them “by whatever means necessary.” Days later, the DOJ opened a federal investigation into Walz, Frey and other Minnesota officials who had criticized the immigration operation.
A George W. Bush-appointed federal judge eventually quashed all six grand-jury subpoenas, finding that the government was attempting to coerce Minnesota officials into assisting Trump’s immigration agenda and retaliate against them for refusing.
The same pattern appeared in Newark. Body-camera footage showed a federal official saying Mayor Ras Baraka’s arrest was proceeding “as per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States” before agents were instructed to turn off their cameras. The trespassing charge against Baraka was later dismissed.
Now the country is confronting two more deadly ICE shootings.
ICE officers fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine within one week. Officials later acknowledged that Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the Houston operation and that Durán Guerrero was not the person agents had gone to the Maine location to arrest. Investigations remain ongoing.
That is exactly why America needs an Attorney General who answers to the Constitution—not the president. The Attorney General’s duty is to preserve evidence, protect witnesses, follow the facts wherever they lead, and ensure that no federal badge ever becomes a shield against justice.
Todd Blanche has instead repeatedly defended federal agents without an investigation, withheld accountability from grieving communities, and turned the DOJ’s power toward the elected officials demanding answers.
Tell the Senate: Vote NO on Todd Blanche for Attorney General
Reproductive Freedom Is Also in Todd Blanches Sights
Todd Blanche’s confirmation could also place the Justice Department behind a backdoor national restriction on medication abortion.
Anti-abortion organizations are pressuring Blanche to intervene in Louisiana v. FDA, restrict telehealth access to mifepristone and revive the 19th-century Comstock Act as a tool to stop abortion medication from being sent through the mail. Ms. reported that anti-abortion leaders held a closed-door meeting with a high-ranking DOJ official and were told that officials had been examining possible uses of the Comstock Act.
The Attorney General should not be a legal delivery system for radical ideological organizations trying to impose through executive power what Congress has never enacted.
A person’s reproductive healthcare should not depend on private pressure campaigns directed at Donald Trump’s former criminal-defense lawyer.
Here are the Objections to Todd Blanche
He has profound conflicts of interest. Blanche moved directly from representing Trump in criminal proceedings to running the Justice Department, while DOJ refuses to disclose the full scope of his recusals.
He was formally told to recuse from Trump’s personal matters. The career ethics official who delivered that guidance was later fired, while the department reduced its ethics staff.
He personally identified himself as Trump’s lawyer in the present tense. Blanche said “I’m his lawyer” during his confirmation hearing before attempting to correct himself.
He controlled the DOJ’s Epstein-file operation. Bondi testified that Blanche led the matter, managed the release, and participated in redaction decisions.
His department has not delivered full confidence or transparency. Roughly 2.5 million potentially responsive pages of the Epstein files were not included in the public release, thousands of files were removed, a federal court ordered additional action, and DOJ’s inspector general is auditing compliance.
He treated Epstein survivors as a confirmation problem. Blanche met with them only after a Republican senator made it a condition of support, and Annie Farmer afterward described him as “abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal”.
He helped advance a taxpayer-funded deal benefiting Trump and his allies. The agreement included a nearly $1.8 billion fund overseen by commissioners dominated by Blanche’s appointees and broad tax protections for Trump’s family.
A federal judge found the IRS lawsuit was misused. The court barred the settlement from future proceedings and referred participating government lawyers for possible professional discipline.
His DOJ is attempting to erase January 6 convictions. Prosecutors asked an appeals court to vacate seditious-conspiracy convictions and permanently dismiss the indictments.
He has treated federal immigration agents as untouchable. Blanche dismissed calls for a civil-rights investigation into RenĂ©e Good’s killing, praised agents as acting “humanely” after Alex Pretti’s death, and led a Justice Department that kept crucial evidence from Minnesota investigators for months.
He has turned DOJ authority toward local officials who criticized the administration. A federal judge later quashed subpoenas aimed at Minnesota leaders and found that they were intended to coerce and retaliate.
His nomination could endanger medication-abortion access. Anti-abortion organizations are pressuring Blanche to restrict mifepristone and revive the Comstock Act.
Opposition extends across the legal profession. The New York City Bar Association, more than 1,200 former DOJ employees, and 101 former federal and state judges have raised objections concerning his independence, ethics, or fitness for office.
Tell the Senate: Vote NO on Todd Blanche for Attorney General
The Senate Must Reject Todd Blanche
America deserves an Attorney General who advocates for liberty and justice for all—not one man, one family, one political party, or one president’s revenge campaign.
We deserve an Attorney General who protects survivors instead of stonewalling them.
We deserve an Attorney General who investigates federal killings instead of shielding agents and intimidating critics.
We deserve an Attorney General who safeguards reproductive freedom instead of opening the door to an antique law being twisted into a nationwide abortion restriction.
We deserve an Attorney General who respects judges, follows ethics guidance, protects evidence, supports career prosecutors, and understands that public office is a public trust.
Todd Blanche has shown America whose interests come first. Donald Trump.
Todd Blanche even said it himself:
“I’m his lawyer.”
Every senator must now choose.
Does the Department of Justice belong to Donald Trump—or does it belong to the people?
Urgent Update: The Vote Is Coming—and Cornyn Caved
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination Tuesday, August 4, and then it heads to the full Senate floor. If the committee advances him, Senate leaders could rush a final confirmation vote before the chamber leaves for its five-week recess.
Todd Blanche’s nomination had stalled because Republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis withheld their support. They demanded two things in writing: permanent termination of the nearly $1.8 billion fund and clarification that the tax agreement would not shield Trump and his family from future audits.
Blanche finally issued those narrow written assurances, and Cornyn’s office immediately announced that it had reached an agreement with the Justice Department. In other words, Cornyn’s stated objection disappeared once Blanche put the political deal on paper.
But Cornyn’s concession does not erase the rest of Blanche’s record.
One last-minute concession does not wipe this record clean.
It does not erase Blanche’s staggering conflicts from serving as Donald Trump’s criminal-defense lawyer before taking control of the Justice Department.
It does not excuse the secrecy, delays, disappearing files, or contempt shown toward Epstein survivors demanding the truth.
It does not undo his attempt to erase January 6 convictions and rewrite accountability for an attack on our democracy.
It does not absolve him for shielding federal agents while turning the power of the Justice Department against local leaders who dared to demand answers.
It does not silence the alarm bells for reproductive freedom, career prosecutors, judicial independence, civil rights, or equal justice under law.
And it does not close the legal loopholes buried inside Trump’s corrupt IRS settlement.
A piece of paper signed under political pressure cannot erase a record built on loyalty to Trump, protection for the powerful, and contempt for accountability.
Senator Cornyn may have gotten enough paper to justify changing course. The American people have not received enough truth, accountability, or independence to justify confirming Todd Blanche as the next attorney general.
Act Now: Tell the Senate to Vote No
There is no time to sit this one out. The committee vote is approaching, and a full Senate vote could follow quickly.
1. Call Your Senators
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to each of your senators. You can also find your senators and their direct contact information here.
Call script:
Hello, my name is [NAME], and I am a constituent from [CITY].
I am calling to urge Senator [NAME] to vote NO on Todd Blanche’s confirmation as Attorney General.
The Attorney General must represent the American people—not serve as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer or political fixer. Blanche’s conflicts of interest, handling of the Epstein files, involvement in Trump’s IRS settlement, efforts to erase January 6 convictions, and record of politicizing the Justice Department make him unfit to lead it.
Please publicly oppose Todd Blanche and vote no in committee and on the Senate floor. Thank you.
2. Send a Quick Letter to Your Senators
Send a letter to your senators urging them to oppose Todd Blanche.
Tell them that eliminating one corrupt fund does not eliminate Blanche’s broader record of conflicts, stonewalling, political retaliation, and loyalty to Trump over the Constitution.
The Attorney General holds immense power over prosecutions, civil-rights enforcement, federal investigations, voting rights, reproductive freedom, and the conduct of federal officers. That authority must never be handed permanently to a president’s personal fixer.
Every senator must answer one question with their vote: Does the Department of Justice serve Donald Trump—or does it serve the American people?
Thanks for taking action!
đź—˝ America at 250: Liberty, Justice, and Building Power to the People
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9 Comments
https://newsletter.peoplepowerunited.org/p/todd-blanche-trumps-lawyer-not-americas-attorney-general
Well unfortunately, Tillis and Cornyn folded this morning. Why are RepugniCONs so spineless, even when they're leaving offIce?
We need a new AG! Not Todd Blanche because he’s trump’s personal attorney!