Todd Blanche won the attorney general job, but according to legal analyst Michael Popok, he may have talked his way into his own impeachment.
Blanche was confirmed as attorney general last week by the narrowest possible margin, 50-49, in an overnight vote that capped a bruising fight. On the Legal AF podcast, Popok argued the win was hollow, and that Trump's former criminal defense lawyer emerged fatally weakened.
"He's been left damaged goods," Popok said, pointing to the promises an "immoral" Blanche made to senators to secure their votes — promises Popok said he cannot keep.
"Did he lay the framework and the groundwork for his own impeachment and removal as attorney general?" Popok pondered.
He went further, predicting Blanche "could be one of the shortest tenured attorney generals ever" if Democrats retake the House and Senate in the midterms. Blanche will face hostile oversight and a record of sworn testimony that can be turned against him.
Popok said two senior Judiciary Committee Democrats, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, told him the losing fight was worth it. Booker urged supporters not to surrender.
"Even if we lose," he said, "history will look back and take strength from our resistance."
Blumenthal laid out a blunter case, citing Blanche's enabling of Trump — from downplaying Jan. 6 crimes to the president's crypto windfall — and a crucial asymmetry: under recent Supreme Court rulings, Trump can't be prosecuted for official acts in office, but his attorney general enjoys no such shield.
"He can't be held responsible criminally while he's in office for anything he does while he's in office," Blumenthal said, "but Todd Blanche could be."