Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s attempt to gain membership to one of the Beltway's most elite private clubs is reportedly meeting a wave of resistance from more than a few members.
According to Politico's Daniel Lippman, at least six members have written to the Metropolitan Club's board of directors to object to Blanche's joining, saying he's too polarizing, citing the damage he is inflicting upon the Department of Justice. As Politico puts it, "Some members of one of Washington’s most exclusive clubs have a message for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche: We don’t want you."
According to members who are critical of Trump's former personal lawyer, "He is targeting a lot of people, and the Justice Department is targeting a lot of the members of the club, like judges, nonprofit organizations and universities."
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — whom the DOJ was investigating as part of a probe into central bank renovations — is a club member, the report notes. The Justice Department dropped its criminal investigation into Powell and the Federal Reserve on Friday, precisely the kind of weaponized prosecution that club members fear.
A second Met Club member who penned a rejection letter called Blanche's public comments endorsing Trump's use of the DOJ to target political enemies "pretty startling" and noted that the club's membership includes sitting and retired judges who would naturally take offense.
"I am disappointed that the club's standards are slipping on so many levels and can only hope that the club leadership will recover, grab the rudder and set us on a smooth sail once again," remarked a third member opposed to Blanche's membership.
The core objection is about institutional integrity, Politico is reporting.
"The Trump administration is at war with most American institutions, and so the people who represent those institutions, many of them are at the club," the first member explained. "And the club is the kind of place where you want to be able to relax and have a congenial conversation. But if he's in there, given that the Justice Department is so combative and aggressive, this is not the kind of tone that we want."