How Todd Blanche's Confirmation Would Break the DOJ

The Department of Justice has been compromised under Trump. But former Assistant FBI Director Frank Figliuzzi warns the destruction would be turbocharged under Blanche.

Frank Figliuzzi hosts The Frank Figliuzzi Show on Lincoln Square. He is an FBI Assistant Director (retired); 25-year veteran Special Agent; and author of the national bestseller, The FBI Way, and Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers. Subscribe to his Substack.

This week could signal what the future of the U.S. Department of Justice looks like potentially for years to come.

Unless circumstances change following the death of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, or later in the full Senate’s schedule, if Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remains absent, Todd Blanche will begin his confirmation process to be the next Attorney General of the United States.

Simply put, the future of the department would look as it does with Blanche serving as Acting AG – and even worse. Blanche’s confirmation would turbocharge the real-time train wreck that’s already derailed the rule of law at a critical institution where I served for 25 years.

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Blanche’s prior role, and on-going shadow role, as President Trump’s personal attorney are at the core of a professional conflict that should disqualify Blanche from serving as AG. There’s no debate that Blanche represented Trump in the hush money trial involving adult-film actress Stormy Daniels (Trump was found guilty and is appealing with other lawyers). Nor can anyone dispute that Blanche was Trump’s hired gun when Trump was charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election, or in the case where Trump was charged with hiding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Blanche caught Trump’s attention when the lawyer was representing Trump buddy and campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Blanche was able to get Manafort’s state mortgage fraud charges dismissed in 2019 using a double jeopardy argument based on similar federal charges. That success came as Trump was ramping up his reelection bid. The rest is bad legal history and bad for justice in America.

Five months ago, at his Senate confirmation hearing to serve as Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche was asked if being President Donald Trump’s lawyer in the hush money trial and in other cases resulted in a “continuing duty of loyalty and confidentiality” to client Trump even if he was named deputy attorney general. “Yes,” Blanche answered, asserting his “attorney-client relationship with President Trump.”