Blanche says only Trump knows why Bondi was fired, defends president’s vision for DOJ

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said President Trump is the “only one that knows” why Pam Bondi was fired, as he gave a vocal defense Tuesday of the president’s vision of the Justice Department.

“Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I’m the acting attorney general, except for President Trump,” Blanche said in his first press conference since taking over the department.

“President Trump’s the only one that knows that.”

Blanche said he was unsure how Trump planned to handle leadership of the department, including whether he would be asked to stay on as attorney general, return to his old role or be asked to do something else.

“I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime. And if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that’s an honor,” Blanche said.

“If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.’ So I don’t have any goals or aspirations beyond that.”

Blanche also declined to directly answer whether Bondi would appear for a slated deposition about the department’s handling of the Epstein files with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee scheduled for April 14.

“What happens now that she’s the former attorney general and there’s the subpoena out there is, I think I’ll leave to Chairman [James] Comer (R-Ky.) and others to figure out — I don’t have an answer to that,” he said, later adding he would not rule out invoking privileges that might complicate Bondi’s duty to appear.

Blanche scheduled the press conference to talk about a newly formed fraud unit that he previewed in March.

The acting attorney general said the department has 8,000 fraud investigations underway but claimed they “represent a fraction of the fraud ripping off our country every day.”

He was asked whether in his new role he felt pressured to deliver on political prosecutions of Trump’s enemies.

“We have thousands of ongoing investigations and prosecutions going on in this country right now. It is true that some of them involve men women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with and that believe should be investigated. That is his right, and indeed it is his duty to do that, meaning to lead this country,” Blanche said.

“And so I do not view this as pressure. I do not view this as something that is going to keep me up at night, except to make sure that we are investigating every case that we have to the fullest extent of the law.”

“People say the president wants to go out for his political enemies. No, the president has said time and time again that he wants justice,” Blanche added later.

Blanche was also asked about recent comments in which he boasted the Justice Department and the FBI had “cleaned house,” including by firing people who had worked on the prosecutions into Trump.

“Look, if you were a prosecutor and you were trying to prosecute your boss, you have ethical duties as a lawyer that I think prevent you from continuing to work in that environment,” he said.

“I hope everybody agrees they shouldn’t work here if you’re not doing the right thing. And that’s what I meant by that.”

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