Todd Blanche should not be confirmed as attorney general

It is unlikely that President Trump’s nomination of his personal criminal lawyer Todd Blanche to become the 96th attorney general of the United States will fail confirmation. And that is unfortunate, because Blanche represents a travesty of equal justice under law.

The Republicans have a 53 to 47 Senate majority. Senators, especially those of a president’s party, tend to believe that presidents are entitled to select their own Cabinet members. 

Only four presidential cabinet nominees have failed confirmation in our history — although presidents have been forced to withdraw nominations from time to time in the face of an indicated Senate hostility to the nominee. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for example, withdrew as Trump’s pick for attorney general in November 2024 following Senate scrutiny over his involvement in a sex trafficking investigation.

Blanche is dangerous. Elevated to acting attorney general in April when Trump fired Pam Bondi, he takes a jaundiced view of where his loyalties lie. He is in the tank for Trump. His undivided loyalty is to Trump, not to the Constitution. He has selectively and vindictively targeted Trump’s political enemies, something reserved for countries ruled by dictators.

Blanche is an inept manager, transforming the Justice Department from a meritocracy into an ethical dunghill. He has replaced seasoned lawyers with inexperienced loyalists after hundreds of career prosecutors departed, either in disgust or after being purged because they had participated in cases against Trump.

Plagued by the lack of experienced prosecutors and infected by politicized charging decisions that went nowhere, the Justice Department has lost sight of its core mission to see that justice is done.

The........

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