As members of the House prepare to proceed with a vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a former high-ranking official in the Department of Justice is urging lawmakers to target Attorney General Todd Blanche instead.
In a New Republic column, former U.S. attorney and legal analyst Harry Litman argued there is an “open and shut case” for removing Blanche, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer.
“For the last 20 months, the Justice Department hasn’t been flirting with authoritarianism,” Litman wrote. “It has been an anti-democratic stronghold, embracing practices that don’t happen in a democracy, and that in fact define authoritarian rule.”
Litman wrote that if he were drafting the articles of impeachment, he would set aside what he described as Blanche’s many other abuses and focus on a single count: using federal prosecutions to punish Trump’s enemies. According to Litman, a one-count article sacrifices some firepower, but it would focus Congress and the public on what he called “the singular paradigm of authoritarianism.”
Litman then laid out how he believes a Senate trial would unfold, arguing that Blanche would have no credible defense. In Litman’s view, Blanche couldn’t deny pursuing the cases because he has publicly defended them as a legitimate use of Trump’s Article II powers. Litman also argued that following the president’s orders is no excuse.
“Sorry, but Blanche isn’t a 24-year-old lieutenant in a jungle,” Litman wrote. “He’s the attorney general, who swore to support and defend the Constitution, not to blindly obey the president.”
Litman also pointed to Blanche’s refusal to pledge independence from the White House, when Blanche said: “No attorney general should ever pledge that.” According to Litman, acquitting Blanche on that basis would mean the Senate ratifying “the authoritarian detour he engineered.”
Litman wrote that the country has absorbed many abuses during Trump’s second term, but argued that prosecuting innocent people because they are the president’s political enemies is “Not a strain, but a break.”
“The new Congress’s first responsibility should be to reject Blanche’s crass and corrupt embrace of the rule of tyrants,” Litman concluded.