Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a new legal opinion hours after being sworn in, handing President Donald Trump broad new immunity that could cripple their constitutional powers.
The opinion, issued by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, argues that executive privilege — the legal shield that lets presidents keep internal advice secret — extends to private citizens who advise the president.
The Senate confirmed Blanche 50-49 after key Republican holdouts won written assurances about the Justice Department's independence.
Those assurances were the price of confirmation.
"I think the DOJ needs Senate-confirmed leadership to prevent some of the chaos and dysfunction over there, and I think Blanche is as good as you're going to get," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told National Review.
Hours after Blanche was sworn in Sunday, his Justice Department released the opinion.
The Office of Legal Counsel concluded that privilege can apply so long as communications relate to official presidential decisionmaking, involve the president or his direct advisers, and are confidential.
"Oh, look. Blanche gets confirmed. Trump gets an entirely new immunity," former CNN commentator Amanda Carpenter wrote on X.
"It must have been prepared beforehand (when Blanche was acting AG) but even republican senators might have been spooked by such claims," University of Maryland legal historian Holly Brewer wrote on Bluesky.
Politico reporter Josh Gerstein noted the opinion arrived as courts are already fighting over demands for testimony from outside Trump advisers — specifically Boris Epshteyn.
National security journalist Marcy Wheeler noted that Epshteyn, who holds no government job, reportedly had his Russia ties scrutinized when he left Trump's first-term White House and faced pay-to-play allegations during the 2024 transition.
Epshteyn and pro-MAGA podcaster Steve Bannon are named in active court filings as secret operatives in a White House scheme to pressure major law firms, Raw Story previously reported.
"Let me repeat this: There [are] major law firms in Washington, D.C.," Bannon said in a televised interview cited in those filings. "What we are trying to do is put you out of business and bankrupt you."
The American Bar Association argues in court that Epshteyn's communications cannot be privileged because he is a private citizen — exactly the category the new opinion now covers.
The White House has refused to hand over any of the 16 categories of documents the ABA requested, with the fight ongoing in federal court, according to Raw Story's prior reporting.
"So the WH is trying to extend executive privilege to private citizens that communicate with POTUS/WH," former Meet the Press host Chuck Todd wrote on X. "Legally dubious for sure, but the mere existence of this memo is the WH acknowledging a future with Cong subpoenas targeting the private sector who did 'deals' with Trump and his family and friends."
