The Senate battle over Todd Blanche's nomination to be attorney general has laid bare a fundamental truth: corruption is the rotten core of the Trump administration. Blanche, who has been acting as the nation's top law enforcement officer, approved a series of deals that would have created a taxpayer-funded slush fund and granted sweeping immunity to the president and his family—moves that even some Republican senators found indefensible.
President Trump was reportedly willing to sacrifice Blanche's confirmation rather than back down on these arrangements, which were crafted as if Blanche were still Trump's personal attorney rather than the acting attorney general. Efforts by Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) to rein in the deals were initially dismissed by Trump, but the senators have now expressed satisfaction with Blanche's decision to rescind the order creating what Tillis called the “payout pot for punks” and to clarify that the immunity deal applies retroactively “just” to Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization.
But these concessions do not erase the corruption that the deals revealed. Blanche abused his power to mock the rule of law, enrich his most important client, and betray American taxpayers. The controversy traces back to January, when Trump and his family filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the government over leaked tax returns—an act that a federal judge later deemed “for an improper purpose,” designed to create the illusion of “judicial legitimacy for a 'settlement' that had no viable basis in law or fact.”
The administration's ideology holds that there is no independent Justice Department—every employee, including the attorney general, exists to carry out the president's demands. Blanche fully subscribes to this view, so there were never two sides to the lawsuit, only lawyers working for Trump inside and outside the government. What Trump got, just months after filing the bogus lawsuit, was a massive slush fund he could distribute to allies—potentially including those who attacked the U.S. Capitol Police—and an immunity deal that would make Trump, his family, and their business empire legally untouchable for past wrongdoing.
Blanche could never have secured such a deal for Trump while outside the government, and Trump would never have demanded it if he weren't so committed to using the presidency for self-enrichment. The entire episode was a flagrant abuse of the legal system to benefit Trump personally and financially. The judge in the case also noted that the immunity deal “directly contravenes” federal law against executive branch influence on taxpayer audits and investigations.
Beyond the slush fund and immunity deal, Blanche's record is riddled with other disqualifying offenses. He has turned the Justice Department into a weapon against Trump's personal and political enemies, and he has been accused of orchestrating a cover-up related to Jeffrey Epstein. During a meeting with Epstein abuse survivors, he reportedly told them to “get to the point,” showing a shocking lack of empathy. He has defended Trump's corruption of the pardon process, presided over a DOJ losing talented attorneys and the trust of federal judges, and been repeatedly slammed for prosecutorial misconduct, including misleading judges and violating court orders.
The Not Above the Law Coalition has summarized his tenure as “16 months of corruption, retaliation, and abuse of power.” Blanche is everything an attorney general should not be. No senator should dishonor their office or betray their oath by voting to confirm him—now or in the future.
