The newly sworn-in attorney general rejected the idea of an independent Justice Deportment, lent support to Jeanine Pirro and declared the “anti-weaponization” fund dead.
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Attorney General Todd Blanche rejected the idea of a Justice Department independent from the White House, saying he would take into account President Donald Trump’s views when directing federal law enforcement.
“Will I take the president of the United States’ view on something into consideration? Yes, of course. And I hope every attorney general in history would not answer that question differently,” Blanche said Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
Post-Watergate norms have largely shielded the Justice Department’s work from the White House’s interference, but Blanche has often defended the president’s right to weigh in on the department. In April, he told reporters the president had a “right” and a “duty” to offer opinions on criminal prosecutions.
Blanche was sworn in last week to lead the Justice Department following a contentious confirmation process, including concerns from Democrats and a handful of Republicans that Blanche would politicize the department. Blanche, a former criminal defense attorney for Trump, was nominated to the position after Pam Bondi’s exit in the spring. He served as deputy attorney general under Bondi.
He has since faced questions from lawmakers over his willingness to push back on the president. He has also been questioned about Trump’s proposed “anti-weaponization” fund that could benefit convicted participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and whether the federal government should gain access to state voter rolls.
Speaking on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Blanche rejected the idea an attorney general should act independently of the president, saying, “No, I’m not going to pledge that.” He said he would welcome the opinions of the president as he would those of any other citizen. Blanche said Trump would “never ask me to do something unethical or illegal.”
“This narrative that’s mostly pushed by the left and pushed by the media that the president’s going to pull me aside and ask me to do something illegal is completely a false narrative, not true, will not happen, and hasn’t happened,” Blanche said Sunday.
Under Blanche, several senior career officials were ousted from the Justice Department, many of whom later said the White House had politicized the department’s work. Democrats have accused the department of targeting political enemies of the president, including former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Speaking Sunday on Fox News, Blanche said he would feel comfortable disagreeing with Trump if needed and that the president appreciates hearing dissent.
Blanche insisted that Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund was dead. The fund was intended to compensate those who claimed to be victims of politicized prosecution, prompting concerns among lawmakers that it could benefit participants of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Last year, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 defendants charged in connection with the riot as one of his first executive actions in his second term.
Blanche scrapped the fund earlier this year amid a backlash from senators, including Republicans, who called it a slush fund for the president’s allies. Concerns about the fund nearly derailed Blanche’s Senate confirmation, which was approved by the slimmest of margins, with two Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — voting against him.
“I‘ve said repeatedly it’s dead. And [Trump] has also said it’s dead,” Blanche said on “Meet the Press.” “There is no fund. No money went from the Treasury to any account. There were no commissioners established. And so there is no fund.”
Blanche defended U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who has clashed with Trump over her decision to drop prosecutions of alleged vandalism in the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.
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Trump, who touted a major renovation to the pool that led to discoloration and peeling liner, lashed out at Pirro for placing the blame for the botched project on the administration’s contractor rather than vandals.
“I absolutely support U.S. Attorney Pirro as does President Trump. Now, that’s different than whether the president is extraordinarily frustrated at what happened in that case,” Blanche said on “Meet the Press.” He added that he still felt there was potential vandalism but that judging Pirro “on a single case because of the evidence that we had is not fair.”
Blanche also defended a controversial Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo that said communication with advisers to the president, including those who are not on his payroll and have no formal connection to the administration, could be protected from Congress and the courts.
“The need for presidential confidentiality applies to communications with private advisers just as it does with government officials,” said the opinion released last week.
Democrats, who hope to retake control of the House next year and conduct oversight of the administration, reject the argument. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, called the move “dubious” in a statement last week and said it “creates an environment ripe for corruption that protects only the President and his friends.” Garcia is the Democratic lead on House investigations into Trump’s past connections with deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Blanche stood by the opinion Sunday, telling Fox News on Sunday that the “it was just clarifying existing OLC opinions on this issue.”
“We have to let a president feel like he can have frank conversations with individuals and get honest feedback about running this country,” Blanche said.
Blanche also wouldn’t rule out challenging cases the administration lost over accessing states’ voter rolls, even as far as the Supreme Court.
“Yes, absolutely, it’s a possibility,” Blanche told “Meet the Press” when asked if the issue could go to the high court. “Election integrity is something that President Trump ran on. And the American people elected him. It’s something that every American should care about.”
Trump signed an executive order in March demanding states’ voter rolls to ensure all voters are legally eligible citizens. While some states voluntarily handed them over, the majority refused, including Republican-controlled states such as Georgia and Utah. The U.S. Constitution gives states the power to set the “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives.”
The Trump administration has sued 30 states and D.C. for not turning over the voter rolls. It has lost 22 of the cases.
“We’re not going to stop doing what I think every American should expect us to, which is make sure that we have elections that are fair,” Blanche said. “… This administration knows and of course understands that states administer elections. And that will always be the case. But it doesn’t mean the federal government should play no role.”
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Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this report.
