Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday did not commit to acting independently of President Trump,
but he claimed the president has not and will not ask him to prosecute specific individuals.Trump publicly pressured AG Bondi to take action against Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former FBI Director James Comey. Trump directed the DOJ and FBI to investigate Democrats tied to Jeffrey Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman. Trump, in an executive order signed Thursday, directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate allegations that Republicans have raised that ActBlue allows illegal campaign donations. “There’s a big difference between saying we will always do our job and investigate any case and act independently of the White House. No, I’m not going to pledge that. And no attorney general should ever pledge that,” Blanche told host Kristen Welker on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
He later said, “If I were to pledge, I will be independent of the White House, what that means is that if President Trump says, ‘I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country’ — which is what he has said — what you’re saying to me is I should say, ‘No, sir, I’m not going to do it.’”That would simply be him asking you to do your job. Not go after his political enemies or make purely political decisions and prosecutions based on politics alone. Blanche also said he would “of course” take the president’s view into consideration before taking action, noting he hoped “every attorney general in history would not answer that question differently.”
Since taking over at the Justice Department in an acting capacity, Blanche has overseen the department’s prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey — who was fired by Trump during his first term — over an alleged threat to the president.
Comey, a frequent critic of Trump, denied threatening the president via his Instagram post of a photo depicting “86 47” written out in seashells on a beach.
Blanche also signed off on the creation of a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund as part of the president’s settlement agreement with the IRS.
Under that agreement, Blanche ordered the IRS to never again probe the taxes of Trump, his family members or his businesses — despite the tax agency falling under the Treasury Department. A federal judge has since reopened the president’s lawsuit against the IRS.
The Justice Department scrapped the fund amid bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill, with Blanche officially rescinding his initial order earlier this month in exchange for Republican Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) supporting his confirmation.
The Senate confirmed Blanche via a 50-49 vote last weekend, and Trump’s former personal attorney was sworn in as the full-time attorney general on Aug. 10.
When Welker asked Blanche what he would do if the president asked him to cross an “ethical or legal line,” the attorney general dismissed the possibility.
“The president will never ask me to do something unethical or illegal. He never has. He never will,” Blanche said Sunday.The attorney general later remarked,
“The president does not expect any of his leaders, including me, to just say yes to him no matter what he says. And so of course, there’s vigorous back and forth with every Cabinet member of the president of the United States, which is exactly what President Trump expects.”
“Again, there is this extraordinarily false narrative that the president wakes up in the morning and calls me and says, ‘Todd, go prosecute X or Y.’ He does not do that. He has never done that. He will never do that,” he added.Once again......
Trump publicly pressured AG Bondi to take action against Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former FBI Director James Comey. Trump directed the DOJ and FBI to investigate Democrats tied to Jeffrey Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman. Trump, in an executive order signed Thursday, directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate allegations that Republicans have raised that ActBlue allows illegal campaign donations. The president previously urged Blanche’s predecessor, former Attorney General Pam Bondi, to speed up the prosecutions of multiple of his perceived enemies last year.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6032206-blanche-rejects-independence-pledge/
