All posts tagged "Attorney General"

Brand-new Attorney General Todd Blanche endorsed a MAGA candidate for New York governor, a move that prompted outcry.

Alongside President Donald Trump, Blanche appeared in Garden City, New York, to stump for Bruce Blakeman, the GOP nominee for governor of New York, running against incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Online critics slammed the idea of the country's top law enforcement official endorsing a candidate and suggested it may even violate the Hatch Act, which bars most executive branch employees from partisan political activity....

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has almost "no way" of securing the permanent AG job, according to a former Fox News anchor.

On CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Gretchen Carlson weighed in on the idea of Blanche continuing in his post at the head of the Department of Justice after his confirmation hearing.

Carlson pointed out that "the Senate Judiciary Committee holds the power for this nomination," and Blanche's only chance of winning them over is if he gets rid of Trump's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund....

President Donald Trump's former personal attorney and now pick for attorney general, Todd Blanche, might be confronted with tough questions from the Senate over his "cozy relationship" with the lawyer for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, according to a report on Thursday.

David Oscar Markus has represented Maxwell and suggested she could be pardoned by Trump. She has agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee, but only under the condition of clemency.

And with Trump's decision to reward Blanche with the nomination for the nation's top legal job, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator, Maxwell, have questioned the president's move, wrote Farrah Tomazin, The Daily Beast's political correspondent covering the White House and Congress, in a post for The Swamp, The Daily Beast's Substack....

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made it clear where he stood — and it's firmly behind President Donald Trump, an analyst reported on Thursday.

Salon's Heather Digby Parton described how Blanche openly defended Trump's attack on his perceived enemies during his first press conference this week as acting attorney general since the president ousted now former Attorney General Pam Bondi. Blanche, who was Trump's personal attorney prior to joining the Department of Justice, has signaled he will continue to be loyal to Trump in his new role.

"Blanche went on to explain that there are 'men, women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with,' and it is Trump’s right and duty to lead the country. He said that while the president doesn’t want to go after his political enemies, 'he wants justice' because people had gone after him and his family," Digby Parton wrote. ...

Interim Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted that he had no idea why President Donald Trump had fired former Attorney General Pam Bondi.

During a Tuesday press conference, Blanche was asked to square his pledge to root out weaponization at the Department of Justice with Trump's demand that his enemies be prosecuted.

"You had [people in] this department who stood idly by why states tried to keep President Trump off the ballot," Blanche complained. "When I see reporting about shock and awe at this supposed weaponization of this department, of this Department of Justice, it means nothing to me because it's completely false."...

A CNN analyst was doubtful that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, whom President Donald Trump selected to replace now ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as acting attorney general, would last long in the job.

Senior justice correspondent Evan Perez described how Blanche, who served as Trump's personal attorney and has represented him in various legal matters, including criminal cases, has had a good relationship with the president — for now — while serving as a key legal adviser on matters involving the Justice Department and potential investigations into Trump's political opponents.

"I think that that has helped save him so far, right from some of the, some of the anger of the president," Perez said. "But I think in the end, I think the president is very unhappy with how the department has done what he wants them to do. And some of that is Todd Blanche, or at least a lot of some of the blame goes to Todd Blanche as well. And so we don't know how long he'll last after this, depending on who the president appoints."...