Attorney General Todd Blanche's "strange" address to the Justice Department on Thursday stunned a legal analyst who hurled his own words — and the mounting dangers judges' families face — back in his face.
MS NOW commentator Lisa Rubin took to X to condemn Blanche for a rallying cry to his troops she characterized as blatantly contradictory to his leadership.
"[The] strange part was Blanche's asserted 'respect [for] the role of the judiciary,'" Rubin wrote. "He told the audience, 'We will not engage in or stand for any sort of performative attacks that undermine the institutions that we are sworn to uphold.'"
Rubin was staggered.
"I can think of any number of judges, from district courts to the Supreme Court, who have been attacked -- in ways that imperil their and their family's safety," she wrote, "by people within the administration and its 'outside advisers.'"
Just this month, PBS published a damning report on hundreds of federal judges who have faced threats to their safety.
The U.S. Marshals Service has expressed "significant concern" that threats jumped nearly 60 percent in fiscal year 2025 and are on track to rise again, according to the report.
PBS linked the spike to "a litany of verbal and written attacks by President Trump and members of his administration about judges who have ruled against them."
Rubin also chastised Blanche's praise for Justice Department and FBI employees, who he said were "perfectly comfortable arguing fiercely in the conference room or in your offices about the best strategy or the best path forward."
The legal analyst snapped back: "Why then has this administration punished those who did exactly that?"