New acting AG plans to operate as Trump's personal lawyer

New acting AG plans to operate as Trump’s personal lawyer
In his first press conference, Todd Blanche made it clear he would do the president's bidding

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published April 9, 2026 9:20AM (EDT)


([bSalon) Pam Bondi’s tenure at the Department of Justice started out with such promise. She understood from the beginning that her job was to serve not as attorney general of the United States, but as attorney general of Donald Trump. She was his personal legal hit woman, and she took on the assignment with energy and enthusiasm.

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It’s unclear what exactly cooled Trump on Bondi, but we do know he was unhappy about her inability to stick it to his political enemies. But Trump will perhaps have better luck with the man he immediately named as his acting attorney general — Todd Blanche, Bondi’s deputy and yet another of Trump’s personal lawyers. On Tuesday, at his first press conference after taking office, Blanche proved that he is more than up to the task of flattering the president before the television cameras. When asked if he wanted to be named to the job permanently, he replied, “I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime. And if President Trump chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.’”

That sort of sentiment is certainly appreciated by Trump, but it is insufficient in securing his regard. So Blanche, obviously seeking to learn from his predecessor’s mistakes, went on to make clear that he loyalty to the president comes first — ahead of the traditions and norms that have long been in place at the Justice Department, ahead of his duty to the country, ahead of any commitment to the rule of law.

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During his 14 months as Bondi’s deputy, Blanche presided over a full-scale purge of the Justice Department, which saw the firing of anyone with even the most tangential relationship to the investigations of Trump’s role in Jan. 6 and his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and his possession of classified documents after leaving office. He has made no bones about believing that any prosecutor who worked on those cases had behaved unethically and should have resigned. At the same time Blanche is defending Trump’s right to “get justice” against anyone he believes has wronged him, he is overtly punishing the department’s career prosecutors and FBI agents who were assigned to “get justice” for the president’s criminal behavior. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/09/new-acting-ag-plans-to-operate-as-trumps-personal-lawyer/