Last month, US President Donald Trump dismissed Pam Bondi as attorney general, allegedly due to her failure to effectively prosecute several of his political adversaries.
Trump appointed Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer, as Bondi’s temporary replacement, and the ex-prosecutor has eagerly taken on the task of fulfilling the Republican president’s wishes.
“(Bondi) was running the Justice Department more like Donald Trump’s personal law firm than like an impartial Department of Justice,” said Barbara Mc Quade, a law professor at the University of Michigan.
“But it’s only gotten worse, I think, since Todd Blanche came along,” Mc Quade, a former US attorney, told AFP.
Bondi notably did not bring cases against former FBI director James Comey, a vocal critic of Trump, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who initiated a significant civil real estate fraud case against Trump after he left the White House in 2021.
Since taking over from Bondi, Blanche has secured a new indictment of Comey – for allegedly threatening Trump’s life in an Instagram post that displayed an image of the numbers “8647” arranged in seashells.
The indictment claims that “86” is slang for kill and “47” refers to Trump being the 47th president.
Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor, called the case against Comey a “joke” while adding that “there’s nothing funny about the abuse of power that it represents.”
“This is not about prosecuting a legitimate criminal case,” Eliason stated in a Substack post. “It’s about using the justice system to punish one of Trump’s perceived enemies.”
“Even if it does not result in a conviction,” he noted, “such a prosecution results in tremendous emotional and financial harm. And that’s precisely the point.”
Blanche has also recently targeted a well-known civil rights organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has long been viewed as problematic by right-wing groups.
The SPLC faces allegations of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering over its usage of donor funds to pay confidential informants within hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Party of America.
</pp Apart from encouraging actions against those he considers political foes,</pp , Trump has also removed government officials he sees as disloyal,</pp , targeted law firms involved in earlier cases against him,</pp , and cut federal funding from universities.</pp Former Democratic President Barack Obama spoke out recently regarding these actions without naming Trump directly.
</pp “The White House shouldn’t be able to direct attorney general investigations towards anyone they want prosecuted,” Obama stated during an appearance onThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert.</pp “The norm is.. the idea is.. that attorney general represents people-not just serves as president’s consigliere.”</pp
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– ‘Duty’ –
At his first press conference following his takeover from Bondi, Blanche defended investigations into individuals or groups Trump perceives as opponents. “It is true that some of them involve men, women and entities that the president, in the past, has had issues with and believes should be investigated,” he explained. “That is his right; indeed it is his duty to do that.” Blanche dismissed accusations that the Department of Justice was being “weaponized” against Trump’s adversaries and claimed there was “weaponization” by the Biden administration “the likes of which had never been seen in history.” Blanche served on Trump’s defense team during his New York “hush money” trial along with two prosecutions initiated by Special Counsel Jack Smith – regarding allegations related to mishandling classified documents and attempting to overturn 2020 presidential election results. The two federal cases were dropped after Trump won back-to-back terms with victory in 2024 White House race.</pp Mc Quade indicated that Blanche’s “very aggressive moves” give off at least an appearance that he’s trying out for permanent attorney general by doing things intended to please President Trump.</pp Blanche can serve as acting attorney general for 210 days before needing Senate confirmation.</pp Apart from encouraging actions against those he considers political foes,</pp , Trump has also removed government officials he sees as disloyal,</pp , targeted law firms involved in earlier cases against him,</pp , and cut federal funding from universities.</pp Former Democratic President Barack Obama spoke out recently regarding these actions without naming Trump directly.
</pp “The White House shouldn’t be able to direct attorney general investigations towards anyone they want prosecuted,” Obama stated during an appearance onThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert.</pp “The norm is.. the idea is.. that attorney general represents people-not just serves as president’s consigliere.”</pp
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