Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche argued that Americans should be “happy” with President Donald Trump’s level of involvement in the Justice Department.
Blanche, who has previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer, was appointed to the role of acting attorney general following Pam Bondi’s firing earlier this month after a string of missteps, including her failure to prosecute his political enemies.
Blanche was asked in a Tuesday interview with NBC News about the president’s involvement in the inner workings of the DOJ, particularly in relation to an incident in which he posted a private message seemingly intended for Bondi to Truth Social in which he asked her why nothing was being done about his political enemies.
“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,’” he wrote. The Wall Street Journal cited U.S. officials who said that the 79-year-old was “surprised to learn” that his message to Bondi had gone public.
In his Tuesday interview, Blanche claimed that the incident was an example of the president being upfront with the American people and making his “high expectations” clear.
“That type of communication from President Trump should make every American happy,” Blanche, 51, told NBC. “It means that there’s an executive, a chief executive, that is making sure every one of his Cabinet members are working as hard as they should.”
Bondi’s failure to prosecute Trump’s political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Leticia James, was one of the primary reasons she was fired, sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The president had grown increasingly frustrated with Bondi, sources told NBC, with Trump bemoaning the fact that she has not “executed on his vision” successfully.
He announced her departure in an Apr. 2 Truth Social post, calling her a “Great American Patriot and a loyal friend.”
“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” he added, before announcing Blanche’s appointment as acting Attorney General.
Blanche, who described Trump as his boss, said that directing the Justice Department is “what being the commander in chief is about.”
He also told NBC that he would prioritize what the White House claims is the “weaponization” of the Justice Department by Democrats against Trump and his allies.
“I think that what we can do, what we can continue to do, and what I can do as its leader, at least right now, is making sure that we continue to push forward on on the agenda that we were assigned to do,” Blanche told NBC’s Laura Jarrett.
“So that means making America safe again is the big umbrella, but then fundamentally it’s addressing weaponization and making sure that things that happened over the past several years don’t happen in the future.”
In addition to its failed cases against Comey and James, the Justice Department was forced to abandon its case against six Democratic lawmakers accused by Trump of sedition, with grand jurors declining to indict them in February.
Blanche claimed in his interview that failed indictments were proof that the Justice Department was working hard.
“It could be that the grand jury just made the wrong decision,” he told NBC.
“The grand jurors don’t get everything right, just like nobody gets everything right all the time. So some of those, it’s a tough case, and some of those we’re continuing to investigate. You don’t have to just take a ‘no true bill’ from a grand jury and walk away.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
