US Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks next to US Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen during a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., US, September 30, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Attorney General Todd Blanche fired back at reporters who questioned how he could accuse federal judges of bias after calling his own fight with the judiciary a "war."
Blanche faced the questions Wednesday at a Justice Department press conference, where he announced a misconduct complaint against nearly all of Minnesota's federal district judges, whom he accuses of violating ethics rules by discussing last winter's Minneapolis immigration crackdown in interviews with The New York Times.
"[W]e have asked the Eighth Circuit to conduct an investigation, and in the meantime, that these judges recuse themselves from every case involving DHS, either criminal or civil in nature, because of the obvious bias they have shown in this article with The New York Times," Blanche said.
Blanche, who was then deputy attorney general, told a Federalist Society event in Washington in November 2025 that the administration was at "war" with judges he called activists, Bloomberg Law reported. As attorney general, Blanche has been accused of blurring the boundaries between politics and law enforcement by speaking at Republican events.
He has also negotiated a settlement benefiting the Trump family as attorney general even though he is no longer President Donald Trump's personal attorney.
Blanche faced questions about a double standard at the press conference on Wednesday after he said that the "overtly political" Minnesota judges should recuse themselves in cases involving the Department of Homeland Security.
"You've said, 'It's a war, man,' and you've asked young lawyers to join in that war," one reporter said. "Can you just explain the difference you see between your comments and the judges' comments?"
"Well, there could not be a bigger difference. It turns out I'm not a judge!" Blanche replied. "OK? I'm allowed to fight for my prosecutors! I'm allowed to get really fired up when, for example, judges in Minnesota complained about us violating court orders."
"And it's a war — I mean, listen, that was a comment that I made in the middle of a seven-sentence paragraph," Blanche added.
However, Bloomberg Law's account of that speech quoted Blanche using the word three times, including when he told young lawyers the department needed them "because it is a war." He said those judges were at least as political as the most liberal governor or district attorney.
"Mr. Attorney General, you have engaged in partisan activities," another reporter pointed out. "You have appeared at political rallies, and it has long been the norm that the sitting attorney general did not do that."
"Are you blurring the line by you being a political actor in certain circumstances and yet expecting something different from the bench, and where they may have concerns about underlying conduct?" the reporter asked.
"[T]he whole point of this is I'm not supposed to get into a factual battle, a factual back-and-forth with a sitting federal judge on a case in front of him or her," Blanche responded. "And so that's exactly why this process isn't wrong. As far as what I do on my own time or when I speak about this administration, the great things we're doing, the rules and the laws around what I'm allowed to do are, again, free for everybody to read."
"I'm not in any way violating any rule or law," Blanche added. "If Democrats want me to come and speak at their rally, they can just give me a call. I have the same thing to say to them that I say to any rally, is that we're fighting to make America safe again, and that every day we're going back to the basics of law enforcement. We're arresting bad guys!"
"And I'll say that to a Democrat or a Republican! So, I mean, I don't know what the question is!" he exclaimed.
The reporter continued to press: "You really never have your own time. Wherever you go, you are the attorney general, and people will see you as the attorney general."
"I don't agree with that! That's not what the law says either," Blanche shot back, arguing that the law allows him to support the administration's priorities in his personal capacity.
"And again, I can't speak to what other attorneys general have done or not done. I'm not judged by what they have done and what I've done. There's been attorneys general who were blatantly partisan and never spoke at a single rally," he said.
"Is that right? Of course not. Of course not," Blanche added.