Robert Reich: Wanna Know Why Todd Blanche Should Never, Ever Become Attorney General?

[FakeNoose]

Link: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/you-wanna-know-why-todd-blanche-should

On Wednesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing to become attorney general.

If the rule of law means anything, the Judiciary Committee should not send Blanche’s name to the Senate for confirmation. And under no circumstances should the Senate confirm Blanche as attorney general.

Blanche, who used to be Trump’s private lawyer, has treated the Justice Department as Trump’s private law firm. He still acts as though Trump — not the United States — is his client.

Consider what Blanche has done for Trump, rather than for the United States.

1. Illegally suppressed the Epstein files

Blanche has conceded that the Department of Justice violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act by making improper redactions in the public release of Jeffrey Epstein’s records but continues to drag his feet. Under Blanche, the department is currently battling lawsuits from journalists and demands from the state of New Mexico to unseal the unredacted documents.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the department to either unredact and release specific files — including emails, potential co-conspirators, and interview notes summarizing allegations against President Trump — or justify why they must remain withheld. But under Blanche’s direction, the department has repeatedly missed or delayed fulfilling orders to unredact the records completely, leading plaintiffs and transparency advocates to accuse Blanche of ongoing noncompliance.

Blanche also personally interviewed Epstein’s longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, in prison, before Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security facility. Minimum-security prisons are generally reserved for inmates with far shorter sentences than Maxwell’s 20 years. Did Blanche make a bargain with her? We don’t know.

2. Prosecuted Trump’s “enemies”

Blanche has assured White House officials that he will move faster and more efficiently against Trump’s targets, and at executing other White House priorities, than did his predecessor, Pam Bondi. Bondi was fired presumably because she didn’t deliver what Trump wanted quickly enough.

At Trump’s insistence, Blanche is moving ahead with investigations into several targets whom Trump regards as enemies — including John O. Brennan, the former CIA director who helped investigate Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Blanche is overseeing the Brennan inquiry, examining whether he lied to Congress in testimony in 2023, and relating to what Trump’s allies have cast as Brennan’s involvement in a “grand conspiracy” by Obama and Biden administration officials to keep Trump out of office each time he ran.

Blanche has also given the green light to inquiries into Cassidy Hutchinson, a young former White House aide who outraged Trump four years ago after she implicated him in the violence that erupted at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Under Blanche, prosecutors have also revived a botched attempt to bring charges against James B. Comey, the former FBI director, after a federal judge threw out charges last year that Comey had lied to Congress....

- more at link -

Robert Reich lays it all out for us today. Please read the rest on Mr. Reich's substack. (OP link)



IMPORTANT ... HERE'S THE MESSAGE:

For all these reasons, Blanche should not be confirmed as attorney general of the United States.

If you’re with me on this, please contact your senator’s office and tell them to vote NO on confirming Blanche. Your senators need to hear from you, now. Please do it today.

The Senate switchboard is [phone].

Elected officials prioritize their own voters, so please share your name and your city/town so the staff knows you live in their state.