Trump's views can factor into prosecutions, Attorney General Todd Blanche says
· Axios
Attorney General Todd Blanche refused Sunday to pledge the Justice Department's independence from the White House, saying he would consider President Trump's views on individual prosecutions.
Why it matters: Trump has remade the DOJ, ousting longtime staffers, urging prosecutions of rivals and installing his former lawyer as attorney general. Blanche made the stakes clear: Trump's wishes can shape who gets investigated and prosecuted.
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What he's saying: "No, I'm not going to pledge that," Blanche told NBC's "Meet the Press" after Kristen Welker asked whether DOJ would "always act independently" of the White House.
- "And no attorney general should ever pledge that," he added.
Zoom in: Blanche said "yes, of course" Trump should have a voice in individual prosecution decisions.
- "The president of the United States, the elected president of the United States, says something to me," he said. "And I'm supposed to say to you, 'I would say no.' I mean, that's not the way it works."
Catch up quick: Blanche called it an "extraordinarily false narrative" that Trump tells him, "Go prosecute X or Y." Yet Trump regularly broadcasts whom he wants prosecuted.
- Last September, Trump called for prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), writing: "They're all guilty as hell. … JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!"
- The DOJ charged Comey and James, though a judge dismissed those cases. Prosecutors later charged Comey again, over a social media post they say threatened Trump. Comey asked the judge to dismiss the case.
- This month, Trump told D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to revisit a vandalism case she dropped after evidence showed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool's damage resulted from a flawed installation.
The other side: On "Fox News Sunday," Blanche told Shannon Bream that Trump "would expect me to tell him no" when they disagree legally.
- "The president loves disagreement," he said.
Driving the news: Blanche's Sunday interviews capped his first week as attorney general after the Senate confirmed him 50–49.
- Days after being sworn in, Blanche warmed up the crowd for Trump at a Long Island event boosting Republican candidates.
- His nomination nearly collapsed over a Trump–IRS settlement that created a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund.
- Senators warned that people prosecuted for the Jan. 6 attack, including those who assaulted police, could seek payouts. GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis withheld support until Blanche rescinded the order.
- On Sunday, however, Blanche said while the fund is dead, he would not rule out Jan. 6 defendants receiving money through the government's claims process.
Context: This isn't the first time Blanche has rejected a wall between the DOJ and Trump.
- In May, he told Congress that DOJ's policy direction comes from Trump: "We take them from the president."
- On Steve Bannon's podcast in April, he criticized the idea that "somehow the Department of Justice is independent from the President of the United States. That is not true."
- In written answers to Congress, he invoked the Constitution: The president is the head of the executive branch, and the Justice Department falls within that branch.
Flashback: Trump has treated alleged political influence over past attorneys general as scandalous.
- In 2016, Trump called it disgraceful that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke privately with former President Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac.
- Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley demanded an inspector general review of the conversation. That review found no evidence of political bias but called the meeting an error in judgment.
- Republicans have also spent years accusing former Attorney General Merrick Garland's DOJ of political weaponization.