The Blanche appointment is another Trump win that’s America’s loss

Trump ballyhooed the appointment of Todd Blanche to become the nation’s 88th attorney general with the exaggerated claim, “Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it!” 

It is to the shame of the U.S. Senate that Blanche is now confirmed. It is the worst appointment of the second Trump administration. Yes, you heard me — worse than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard or Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem put together, because he will serve only President Trump, not our precious rule of law.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who cast the deciding vote, said in an absurd statement that Blanche “is not perfect … but the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,” it is “between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who … may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”

Blanche has proved himself a petty bureaucrat jumping at Trump’s call; a lawyer of distinction he is not.

Ask the more than 1,200 of Blanche’s Department of Justice colleagues who urged the Senate to reject his nomination. Ask the 35 former federal judges from across the country who have argued he committed a fraud on the court. Incumbent federal judges have said that the Justice Department under his aegis is no longer entitled to the presumption of regularity. He has lied to the courts once too often. In July, a judge forced Blanche’s prosecutors to withdraw subpoenas served on New York Times reporters at their homes, finding serious irregularities.

Under Blanche, grand juries have refused to return indictments. The government reportedly could not persuade a single grand juror to sign off........

© The Hill