'What happened?' Todd Blanche's former colleague 'disgusted' by his transformation

A former colleague of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that she's "very surprised" and "disgusted" by his "major transformation" under Trump.

During an interview on Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance, former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah described how "very upsetting" it is to see who Blanche has become in the Trump administration. She spoke with Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor, about her memories of Blanche ahead of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 15 to become attorney general.

In 2001, Blanche was a paralegal at the Southern District of New York who "had a very good career," Rocah remembered. She described him as a family man with kids, a "team player," and a "hard worker" who "seemed to be the person doing it all" when Rocah knew him at SDNY.

"He was great. He was going to law school at night while not only working as a paralegal but doing a really good job as a paralegal," Rocah said. "That's high praise. Like, prosecutors, you know, quickly figure out who are the people you want on your team, and he was one of them."

He became Rocah's co-chief over the White Plains division and tried to teach new prosecutors, "and be their supporter and help them learn from mistakes," Rocah said.

Now, she's "shocked" at how Blanche visited Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in prison and "behaved like a criminal defense lawyer" for her, how he's "comfortable with lying," oversaw career prosecutors marched out of offices "as if they were criminals," negotiated Trump's IRS immunity, and led cases dismissed for vindictive prosecutions.

The "old Todd Blanche" that Rocah knew "would not have met with this person" who he is now, she said.

"There are people who worked with him who are very surprised at a minimum, and many of them, really disgusted by some of the actions that have been taken," Rocah said.

"It's fascinating," Rocah continued. "It's a question people are fascinated by, including me and many of my other former colleagues, of how someone transforms from a person that I could have liked, respected, trusted into someone who is doing things like what is happening now."