With Todd Blanche driving the bus

The president needs a complete toady to help him wage his retribution, revenge, and cover-up campaigns. Todd Blanche has been the perfect fit.

The title of Acting Attorney General is appropriate. He has been acting on behalf of his former client and current boss, Donald Trump, not on behalf of the American people. Think about what’s been done on behalf of the president:

• The Epstein files — released, but not really. What was released was redacted beyond recognition, except for the sections that revealed the names of victims.
  


• The $1.776 billion “slush fund” — your tax dollars going to pay off Trump supporters.
  


• Investigating journalists — to uncover their government sources
  


• Revenge-firing — Blanche got rid of more than 200 prosecutors and agents involved in Trump investigations. “There is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions,” Blanche told an audience of supporters.
  

This is only a partial list. Blanche does as he is told and does it well, even if he hasn’t always gotten the result the president demands.

Blanche, who Trump recently called “a star,” is now up for Attorney General for real, but revenge can be a two-way street. At least two Republican Senators are stymying his efforts to get the job he so covets.

Senators John Cornyn of Texas, who lost his primary to a Trump-backed candidate, and Tom Tillis of North Carolina refuse to vote to send Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate unless they get changes to Trump’s IRS settlement, a settlement Blanche wrote.

The Senators want written assurance that the tax audit shield provision will not apply to future Trump family tax liabilities and extend to more people. Right now, it’s just Trump, his family, and related businesses that would be off the tax hook. So, Trump has to decide if Blanche as Attorney General is worth more than the Trump family never having to pay taxes again.

That will be a hard one for the president to answer. The prospect of never being audited and therefore not having to pay taxes would be especially appealing to someone as greedy as Trump. But his lust for retribution is the driving force behind his second term and seems to be insatiable. With Blanche at the helm of the Department of Justice, Trump believes he can successfully exact his long-wished-for vengeance.

Trump is trying to have it both ways. On Thursday, he said he may pull Blanche’s nomination until Cornyn and Tillis leave office in January, to avoid having to make concessions on the tax settlement deal. In the meantime, Blanche can continue as acting Attorney General.

Trump’s obsession with retribution comes at the expense of just about everything else, including working to keep Republican control of both houses of Congress. With less than 100 days until the midterm elections, the number one issue for Americans is the cost of living. Hands down. Prosecuting Trump’s enemies doesn’t make the list. Neither does relitigating the 2020 election. But that is all he seems to care about.

One of Trump’s least favorite people is his former FBI Director James Comey, whom he fired for his handling of the Russia investigation. Trump has repeatedly called him a “dirty cop” and said he is “guilty as hell.” The president publicly pressured the DOJ to find a way to prosecute him.

Comey’s first federal indictment, under former Attorney General Pam Bondi, ended in an embarrassing dismissal. Legal scholars said the case would likely have failed at trial anyway. The Justice Department said it will appeal.

Then, in April, under Blanche, Comey was indicted on charges of threatening the president and transmitting a threat via interstate commerce. That sounds pretty bad until you hear what Comey actually did. On social media, he reposted a photo of seashells on a beach that spelled out “86 47.” The DOJ asserted that “86” was a threat to assassinate the president, “47.”

When Comey was initially questioned by the Secret Service, Trump made a “direct request” that the interview be sent to him on Air Force One. Trump’s personal involvement in a criminal inquiry is atypical, to say the least. Comey’s lawyers have asked the judge to dismiss the charges as “vindictive persecution,” and added that his post is protected by the First Amendment.

If James Comey is enemy number one, Jack Smith runs a close second. Though pinning a crime on him is proving just as difficult.

Smith, a former acting U.S. attorney, was tapped as special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into Trump’s actions on the infamous January 6 insurrection day and his handling of classified documents. Both cases were dismissed when Trump resumed the presidency.

Trump has not minced words when it comes to Smith, calling him a “deranged animal,” a “thug,” and a “criminal,” while also calling for his hide. On July 22, he got what he asked for, sort of.

The House Judiciary Committee sent a criminal referral of Smith to, you guessed it, the Justice Department. It alleges that he perjured himself when he gave testimony to the committee in December. The president celebrated the referral, with a short but not so sweet social media post: “Justice at last???”

Smith did not lie. He answered the questions that were asked of him succinctly. He did not embellish or provide more information than requested. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the committee chair, characterized Smith’s testimony as full of “half truths.”

To prove perjury a witness must have been asked a clear question and intentionally given an unambiguously false answer. Once again, this drummed-up charge is based on the president’s desire for vengeance and not on a point of law.

Earlier this week, Trump’s lawyers — his personal and his DOJ lawyers — asked the Supreme Court to take up his appeal of E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case. A jury awarded her $83.3 million and a federal appeals court upheld the verdict in 2024 for statements he made against her in 2019. Those defamatory statements were about the sexual abuse allegations she made against him dating back to 1996.

Trump’s argument is that the lower court’s ruling “wrongly eviscerates Presidential immunity.” Presidential immunity that was bestowed by this very Supreme Court.

Even Trump’s single-minded fixation on getting his “SAVE America Act” passed is part of his political payback tour. His justification for the voter suppression bill is his continued and erroneous insistence that he, not Joe Biden, won the 2020 election. Even if the Senate passed the bill tomorrow, very little of it could be enacted in time for the November election.

The problem with surrounding yourself with yes-men is that no one will tell you hard truths. No one in Trump’s orbit has been able to convince him that his political and legal future depends on who controls Congress.

Six months ago he might have been able to work to ensure that Republicans kept the House. Today, that is seen by various polls and political observers as unlikely to happen. Now the Senate is in play. If the Senate flips, Blanche’s confirmation chances go from slim to none. And odds are Trump will once again seek another sycophantic attorney to help him do his dirty work.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department sees larger chunks of its reputation for fairness and equal justice under the law disappear.

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Stay Steady,
Dan