Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has gone all out to make his temporary job permanent.
Blanche has been everywhere since taking over the Justice Department following then-Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure in early April. He’s fast-tracked inquiries into President Donald Trump’s political enemies, such as ex-CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, painted targets on the Southern Poverty Law Center and alleged Somali fraudsters, and has been a key figure in the administration’s response to last Saturday’s attempted attack on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
So far, Trumpworld, both those in the president’s inner circle and the online conservative commentariat, has been impressed with Blanche’s efforts.
Four former Trump White House officials told the Washington Examiner that Blanche’s background, including a stint as the president’s personal attorney, coupled with his administration experience as first deputy and now acting attorney general, makes him the clear pick to be nominated to the role full-time.
“He definitely is playing it smart in terms of deliverables,” one former senior Trump White House aide explained, before noting that Blanche’s experience as Bondi’s No. 2 should have painted a clear picture of what not to do in the job. “Sometimes being the bridesmaid teaches you how to be a bride.”
One longtime, out-of-government adviser to the president told the Washington Examiner that “yes,” Trump plans to nominate Blanche to be attorney general sometime before his 210-day acting window closes, though that person conceded they had not directly discussed with Trump when the nomination might come.
White House officials declined to say whether moving Blanche from the temporary position to a permanent one was an active item on the president’s to-do list, nor did they say if the White House Office of Presidential Personnel is vetting competing candidates for the job.
“President Trump has a great relationship with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and is very pleased with the job he’s doing so far,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Washington Examiner. “Todd Blanche is an American patriot who fearlessly fought against the Democrats’ unprecedented lawfare campaign on behalf of President Trump. The President’s entire team at the Department of Justice is doing a great job advocating for sanity, law and order, and policies that keep Americans safe.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously discounted media reports that Trump may be considering other MAGA law experts to nominate over Blanche.
“With respect to names that are floated, there are always names floated in the press. Sometimes I have a chuckle when I read some of the reports about certain people floated for certain jobs,” she said during an April press briefing. “As far as the president is concerned, right now, Todd Blanche remains the acting attorney general. The president feels he’s doing a good job, and that’s where it remains right now.”
Trump has indicated that he believes that Blanche, “thus far, is doing a fantastic job.”
“I will say that he’s a great lawyer. I know that because he’s been with me a long time,” the president said earlier this month. “And so far, he’s doing a great job. But we have incredible people in the DOJ. Getting better all the time.”
Still, Blanche’s path to a permanent title isn’t totally free of obstacles.
On Monday, he was widely criticized for a series of answers during a Justice Department press conference regarding the sequencing of Saturday night’s attack, specifically regarding whether suspected gunman Cole Allen or responding Secret Service agents were the first to discharge their weapons.
And in the event that Blanche is in fact nominated, he’ll likely face a contentious confirmation hearing, where Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee will almost assuredly grill him on the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Blanche notably led the closed-door interviews with Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, last year, in what can only be described as a failed campaign to ease bubbling tensions within the president’s coalition regarding Bondi’s handling of the case.
Furthermore, Blanche’s more recent olive branches to MAGA, specifically targeting Trump’s political enemies, may prove a problem for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a frequent Trump critic who already this year has shown he isn’t worried about blocking nominations as a means of countering the president’s agenda.
Tillis previously told reporters that he would not support any nominee who “equivocated” regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“Ed Martin’s a benchmark,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday when asked about Blanche’s chances directly. “You say anything approaching that, then you’re not going to get my support in committee.”
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Tillis did qualify that he hasn’t “seen any compelling evidence to say that Todd Blanche” has crossed that line, but would only fully examine Blanche’s past comments if the president does, in fact, nominate him, or someone else, for that matter.
“I haven’t combed through Blanche’s record,” he added. “I’ll scrub it when a nominee comes forward, and I’ll apply the Martin standard.”