It’s been a big week for Trump’s Justice Department, starting with the arraignment of the president’s alleged assassin on Monday.
Just a day after charges were brought against Cole Thomas Allen, who prosecutors say tried to kill President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the DOJ set its sights on a new target: former FBI Director James Comey, who is facing a second set of charges. very poor federal charges – this time, for allegedly threatening the president with a message written on a sea shell.
It’s a lot to keep track of, and overseeing it all is Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney. Blanche, the deputy attorney general, got the top job temporarily after her boss, Attorney General Pam Bondi, was fired earlier that month; now, he’s reviewing the real thing.
CNN senior legal correspondent Paula Reid told Today, It’s Explained co-presenter Noel King earlier this week that the job is Blanche’s to lose. He explains how he got here, how he’s doing so far, and how insiders in the Trump administration and the MAGA movement feel about him as a potential attorney general.
The following is part of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s more throughout the episode, so tune in Today, It’s Explained wherever you find podcasts, incl Apple Podcasts, Pandoraand Spotify.
Has (Blanche) done anything that surprised you?
Todd Blanche really, I think, has met that moment perfectly, especially in the larger context of my report on his attorney general review.
(Shooting at Correspondents’ Dinner) is the first thing that’s happened to the Blanche Justice Department as opposed to something they’ve done or what we’ve seen throughout the Trump Justice Department, which has had a lot of self-inflicted controversy: the handling of the Epstein files, the controversial firings, the decisions they’ve made about cases and trying to indict people. That is all wishful thinking.
But when you’re attorney general, you’re dealing with the Boston Marathon bombing or the San Bernardino shooting. This is not quite of that level, but it is certainly a big event that they have to respond to. That is a real test for the attorney general, and so far it has been a textbook response from him. He performed on Sundays. He took questions. And then we heard from him again after he was charged on Monday.
Pam Bondi, of course, was fired earlier this month. Tell me how Todd Blanche ended up in this job.
He began as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York for a long time. He then entered a white-collar practice, then joined Trump’s legal team around 2023 when Trump was in the middle of the four major legal cases. Todd worked on two federal cases brought by Jack Smith, and also represented him (Trump) in New York in a hush money case.
But what really set Todd Blanche apart is that Trump’s lawyers come and go. I’ve probably talked to 40 of them in the last decade, right? Todd thrived. Yes, his client was convicted in New York, but he kept him out of jail, and ultimately their legal strategy on federal cases resulted in Trump not facing any of those cases. In Trump’s eyes, Todd Blanche is the man who kept him out of jail.
What has he been up to since he ended up in acting?
He has been a busy bee. In my report, I spoke with more than a dozen high-level people within the DOJ. Some people I know don’t particularly care for Todd as a person. There was a general agreement, though, this is his job to lose, but to keep it, he will have to give weapons to the president.
That means Trump wants his political enemies prosecuted, and that’s something they haven’t been able to do yet. Judges and grand juries should sign off on this. They have largely been reluctant, and therefore stumbling upon checks on the system. But he has made it clear that this is what he wants. So finally, to get this job and keep it, he needs to bring a case against a political enemy.
Does MAGA love Todd Blanche?
The two slamming Todd Blanche is that “he is not MAGA enough” and that he is not exonerating the Trump DOJ from the “original sin” of how they handled the Epstein files.
I have spoken with leaders within the administration, including one White House official who said, yes, we feel that Todd is inadequate. He doesn’t do enough for the bottom line. But even those people who in past stories have been very hard on Todd said, “When it comes to acting attorney general, he’s done the job. We’re not against him having the job.”
When it comes to the Epstein files, one administration official told me that is the original sin of the Trump Justice Department. And by that, they mean that Pam Bondi repeatedly distributed those files, promising that there was new information – those links that she provided that were actually reviews of things that were already in the public domain, saying that she had a client list on her desk when in fact there was no client list.
Eventually, they let Todd take over the mission. He was also the one who came down and met Ghislaine Maxwell. He was in charge of the release of those documents. He has been front and center on this. So when he becomes acting attorney general, the concern from some administration officials is that keeping him in office will not rid us of our greatest embarrassment, which is Epstein. But I don’t think in Trump’s eyes that won’t qualify.
Is this job his if he wants it? Are there other big rivals?
My sources say this job is Todd’s to lose. Now, even if you get it, every Trump attorney general has been fired, replaced, or resigned. So we will see. But there are certainly other people pulling at Todd’s heels. But there are also some people in the wings. One is US Attorney (District of Columbia) Jeanine Pirro.
It was funny – the night of the dinner and the shooting, Todd was in the White House. He held a press conference with the president, he said there will be charges, there will be gun charges, maybe law enforcement charges. Thirty, 45 minutes later, Pirro held a press conference, and someone was shouting special rules into the microphone.
It seemed like one civilization – maybe it was just his passion, and I’m reading something into it, but his name is definitely mentioned. We have two and a half more years. There’s probably time for everyone to be attorney general if Todd can’t or won’t stay on the job for two and a half years. It is a difficult task under any administration. But this poses unique challenges.
