A CNN analyst was doubtful that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, whom President Donald Trump selected to replace now ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as acting attorney general, would last long in the job.
Senior justice correspondent Evan Perez described how Blanche, who served as Trump's personal attorney and has represented him in various legal matters, including criminal cases, has had a good relationship with the president — for now — while serving as a key legal adviser on matters involving the Justice Department and potential investigations into Trump's political opponents.
"I think that that has helped save him so far, right from some of the, some of the anger of the president," Perez said. "But I think in the end, I think the president is very unhappy with how the department has done what he wants them to do. And some of that is Todd Blanche, or at least a lot of some of the blame goes to Todd Blanche as well. And so we don't know how long he'll last after this, depending on who the president appoints."
Perez also described how unusual it was that Blanche recently spoke at CPAC in suburban Dallas, Texas, bragging at the conservative political event about removing DOJ employees "who were simply doing their jobs."
"These are people, FBI agents, these are prosecutors who were doing their jobs," Perez said. "They were carrying out court orders that were issued by judges."
The analyst said he was stunned by Blanche's comments and what his remarks could mean for potential future litigation.
"There is absolutely nothing I've ever heard from a political leader at the Justice Department that really rivals something like this because, and by the way, the other thing that's going to happen is that every single person that's suing the department and the government over their firings now has that soundbite to use in their lawsuits."
It's unclear how long Blanche could be in the new role.
"But I'll say this on Blanche's tenure, if I were him, I would not be too comfortable in how long I'm going to be around because the same dissatisfaction that the president has with Pam Bondi's job performance is really also applies to Todd Blanche, because he is the person who runs the department day to day," Perez said.
"A lot of the grumbling behind the scenes about the performance of the department in carrying out the president's retribution agenda has also been about Todd Blanche because people say inside, they say that that's where things go to die, that things have been moving very slowly, that he has not been willing to move things quickly enough," Perez added. "Now, in Todd Blanche's defense, I would say that he understands the reality of how things work, right? That you can't just like go indict people. You need to try to have evidence. You need to figure out where you can best bring cases. And then there's some evidence that's just not there."
