Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche may be the Trump administration's most dangerous employee in the Department of Justice, but not for reasons most people expect, according to one expert.
Barbara McQuade, an author and former U.S. Attorney in Michigan, told Slate's Dahlia Lithwick on a new episode of the "Amicus" podcast that Blanche seems to have certain skills that his predecessor, Pam Bondi, does not. She pointed to Blanche's experience in the federal courts and his time at big law firms, where he learned skills that could help move malicious prosecutions against former FBI Director James Comey through the system.
But McQuade also flagged a reason why Blanche would be willing to put his law license on the line for Trump, even though he could meet the same fate as former Trump lawyers like Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell, both of whom have been disbarred.
"Todd Blanche is a young enough man, I would think, to hope to have career aspirations beyond this, but perhaps he believes that with the billions in wealth that the Trump family is accumulating during this second term, he will be taken care of," McQuade said.
McQuade added that some of Blanche's recent moves also highlight how dangerous he can be to the rule of law. For instance, she pointed to his use of white supremacist arguments in the DOJ's prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center, like claiming the nonprofit "manufactured racism" by going after extremist groups.
She also noted that Blanche's prosecution of Comey is "an absolute abuse of power."
"It’s just so baseless in Comey’s case, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center case, that I can’t conclude anything other than that he’s willing to lose because he can win by losing in this very Trumpian way," she said.