A world of pain awaits Todd Blanche — and Trump's pardon is useless
Two things about this administration stick out like sunflowers, though they're blooming black instead of bright yellow.
First, it is absolutely apparent that if one is close enough to Trump, ethics and the law pose no limitations in the ever-pursuit of money and power (mostly money). Second, given that so many of their crimes and ethics violations occur so clearly as to be picked up by satellite, they apparently believe that they will forever enjoy the current political climate.
The first is locked in; the second seems all but ridiculous and must be based on the belief in an impregnable pardon power.
But one better be just as criminally careful relying on that second one. Because there are consequences beyond federal pardons.
Enter Todd Blanche.
Blanche may be so exposed to consequences — possible criminal ones — that he may someday look with envy at Pam Bondi for getting out early. Blanche may be so exposed he looks breathlessly at Don Jr. and Eric. Blanche might someday realize that in the entirety of this corrupt administration, he is actually ground zero as to criminal and ethical investigations, perhaps finding himself impeached prior to Hegseth.
And he may lose a lot more than his law license.
Oh, and Blanche doesn't have the luxury of hoping that he's in office for six years. That is going to matter as we get around to it. It is stunning that he continues, to this day, to flout all laws and ethics as if he were an emperor/king, even a Führer.
Let's start at the top, and possible criminal violations. To wit:
There is the Eric Adams prosecution, admittedly started by Emil Bove, who then drove the prosecution into the ground, with DOJ ultimately abandoning the prosecution and putting three prosecutors on administrative leave after they refused to go along.
Blanche offered the three a return to the department if they expressed regret and admitted wrongdoing. They saw the writing on the wall and resigned, stating, “We will not confess wrongdoing when there was none.” DOJ demanded that “obedience supersedes all else” despite nearly every professional ethics attorney saying the rule is the exact opposite.
If evidence ultimately showed that Blanche and other officials used threats to employment or other adverse governmental action to force lawyers to do something they were legally prohibited from doing, New York's coercion statutes may well come into play. First-degree coercion specifically reaches coercion that compels someone to “violate his or her duty as a public servant,” and it's a Class D felony.
And so wow.
Next up, perhaps a more serious one, though more difficult to prove — crypto market manipulation in violation of the New York securities/commodities fraud under the Martin Act
The facts align with something serious. Blanche owned somewhere between $159,000 and $485,000 in digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano. Like a Boy Scout, he had expressly stated that he would avoid any “direct and predictable effect” on those financial interests.
Right.
Except, on April 7, 2025, he dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, bad enough, and then — this is STUNNING — specifically shifted DOJ away from already-initiated investigations and prosecutions targeting crypto exchanges.
All but as a matter of course, once the crypto market was declared a free-for-all in the Wild West, the market jumped on the news, making every asset, including Blanche's treasure chest, more valuable. Keep in mind, Martha Stewart went to federal prison for lying to investigators about a suspicious stock trade. Our man created policy that would increase the value of assets he owned.
*It must be said that Blanche transferred $116,000-$350,000 to his adult children and a grandchild, which means nothing about nothing under the law if done to enhance that family asset — as if NO ONE had ever thought of that trick before.
So there is serious state criminal exposure without even having to go to Virginia to visit him, forcing bad-faith prosecutions of Comey. (New York is particularly respected for having a well-developed and tested criminal code.)
Moving to the more interesting and more up-to-date violations, let's look at the millions of ways Blanche could lose his law licenses in New York and D.C., and thus an application anywhere else, too.
First off, it's a good idea to emphasize that caution should be used to avoid any situation in which 101 ex-federal and state judges file a bar complaint against you in your home state, as happened on June 22, 2025 (and it gets more recent), out of Blanche's handling of the Abrego García issue. But wait, there's more. The complaint is not just a press release or petition. It is a 69-page professional-responsibility complaint, one that is meticulous in its factual recitation, that alleges a broader pattern of abuse of DOJ investigative and prosecutorial powers, conflicts involving Trump, disregard of court orders, and professional misconduct, and asks New York disciplinary authorities to act.
The complaint then lists ethical rules that Blanche may have violated.
Here's a thing. When a bar association finds itself on the receiving end of a complaint signed by 101 former judges, that complaint tends to get very serious attention — very, very serious attention. After all, it only takes a handful of current state judges to yank that license.
So why the rundown of all the reasons you knew that Blanche could be in serious trouble? Because, just last week, just like Britney, whoops, he did it again.
On September 30, Blanche announced that the DOJ had filed a judicial-misconduct complaint against essentially the entire active federal district bench in Minnesota after judges spoke publicly about Blanche and the Trump administration's handling of immigration enforcement and what they described as ignoring court orders.
Bad, bad, bad. The judges have a ton of ethical authority to speak publicly in defense of judicial independence and the rule of law. But Blanche aimed the Justice Department's own disciplinary machinery against them. For a lawyer already accused of abusing DOJ authority against people who cross the administration, somebody might want to reopen Rule 8.4(d): ‘conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.'
Bonus round: Just days ago, reporters cornered Blanche about his 2025 remarks to the Federalist Society, in which he essentially declared “war” against “activist judges” and then went so far as to encourage young lawyers to fight back against judges opposing administration policies. Blanche proceeded to lash out toward the reporters.
Okay. So. Wait. First, how does a young lawyer "fight back" against a judge? That lawyer might be better off just offering to go outside and literally fistfight than the only other means: either ignoring the order or burying it in paper to get around the order. An obvious question arises: Is he telling his junior lawyers at DOJ to "fight activist judges by ignoring orders?"
*For non-lawyer readers, an "activist judge" is one who rules against you.
And I may be the only lawyer in the United States who believes it's somewhat possible for future prosecutors to get around presidential pardons, opening a treasure chest of federal crimes. Before anyone yells, I am aware it's a long, long shot.
But it is possible that if a pardon is issued as part of an ongoing fraud conspiracy, such as a quid pro quo, "You do this, protect me from that, you get a pardon forever in some way, but you can't ever talk," it may not be a safe pardon. Put it this way, I'd challenge it — pardons are powerful, especially when done with people you'll never know who came up through a process reviewed and signed off on by others.
And yet, with each pardon issued to everyone around you, they "feel" less powerful and feel more like, well, a mob family, and racketeering that could involve acts (moving money, as one) that continue post-presidency. In some way, for some reason, probably requiring an outright economic depression, in part because Trump was so busy doing his own business, along with shocking findings in investigations, it's conceivable that there will even be federal consequences by stretching those facts post-pardon.
Prosecutors might be granted lots of leeway in such a situation (this country can get mad fast, including MAGA, if the economy truly bottoms out). And Blanche has to be the guy — other than Trump and his family — who tops the leaderboard in post-pardon exposure.
Blanche is a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them. Unlike Trump, who brags about being "a high IQ person," Blanche is likely loaded with IQ points, perhaps rivaling his crypto points. It is thus utterly mystifying that he keeps doing it. A guy who will already have to navigate a complaint filed by 101 federal judges files his own complaint for judicial misconduct for an act that plainly doesn't violate the judicial canon of ethics?
C'mon, man. Can't he see himself begging for mercy at some point? And NOT getting it? Perhaps sooner than he thinks, at least with respect to his law license. A guy this smart has to know that Trump can't protect him forever. He can't even protect him in three more years, no matter how MAGA they all might be, and can't protect him at all if dude's law license is yanked.
The story is one thing if Blanche got off to a rocky start and then sort of found his own power and ability to say "no" to Trump. But if anything, it's getting worse. And that brings up the final point, the hammer.
If the entire MAGA movement didn't have so much to lose, it would and should be Blanche impeached over and above Pete Hegseth.
Here's another general rule. Every single one of your IQ points is rendered useless when you are utterly reliant on a very low IQ person, especially one granting himself temporary unlimited power; it does no good when authorities with lots of points come along and explain them to you.
We know Blanche can read. But that doesn't do any good when he prioritizes reading his boss more than the rules, especially the limits of possible consequences.
Jason Miciak is a Raw Story columnist, former editor at Occupy Democrats, an author, attorney, public speaker, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com
