A single word in a scathing ruling by a federal judge should be enough to sink the nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general, according to a new analysis.
The 79-year-old president formally nominated his former criminal defense attorney to lead the Department of Justice, but MS NOW columnist Jordan Rubin flagged a key word in a recent ruling against the administration – and that's "tainted" – as reason enough to disqualify him.
"That’s how a judge described Blanche’s investigation into Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who became a prime target of the administration’s crudely incompetent deportation regime last year," Rubin wrote. "The Trump-controlled government illegally sent Abrego to El Salvador in violation of a court order, then resisted additional court orders for his return, and then finally secured his return but only to greet him with an indictment that a judge recently dismissed as unconstitutionally vindictive."
"It’s rare for judges to grant vindictive prosecution motions, but the actions of Blanche and his colleagues made it possible," the columnist added. "Indeed, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw emphasized that he didn’t reach the conclusion 'lightly' in his ruling last month."
The Obama-appointed judge dismissed charges of illegally transporting undocumented immigrants against Abrego, writing that the government would not have brought the prosecution if he hadn't successfully challenged his removal to El Salvador, and she pointed the finger at Blanche for the case.
"Crenshaw singled out the blundering of Blanche, who is currently the acting attorney general after Pam Bondi’s departure," Rubin wrote. "He was deputy attorney general at the time of the Abrego probe. 'Absent Blanche’s tainted investigation,' Crenshaw wrote in his May 22 ruling, Abrego’s illegal indictment would not have happened."
The judge also noted Blanche's remarks in a Fox News interview in which he stated that DOJ began investigating Abrego after a Maryland judge “questioned” the legality of his deportation, and she said his "remarkable statements" about the case helped Abrego prove his prosecution was vindictive.
"Therefore, Blanche has not only acted as an instrument for Trump’s revenge but has done so in a manner that has thwarted that revenge’s success," Rubin wrote. "To be sure, Blanche is a competent attorney, but he has chosen what might be termed a 'tainted' path. If the GOP-controlled Senate confirms him to the top job full time, then a microscopically dim silver lining could be that his continued service to Trump will result in further fumbles."