White House Spokesperson Clarifies Independence from President Trump
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Blanche replied, “Well, 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. The president — I mean, 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, not going to do it.” So, I will act with integrity.”
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The Daily WireBlanche shot back, rejecting the premise of her question entirely. “No, I’m not going to pledge that,” he declared. “And no attorney general should ever pledge that. … 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.’”
New York TimesBlanche Refuses to Say He’ll Always Be Independent of Trump as Attorney General The new head of the Justice Department said on “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the president had never asked him to prosecute specific people — and never would.
HuffPostAppearing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Blanche, who previously represented President Donald Trump as his criminal defense lawyer through 2023 and 2024 in major criminal cases, withheld making the promise after moderator Kristen Welker asked him to pledge that “the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House.”
The Guardian USUS attorney general Todd Blanche on Sunday declined to assure that the federal justice department he helms would always act independently of the White House and Donald Trump.
Washington Times“No, I’m not going to pledge that. And no attorney general should ever pledge that,” he said. Mr. Blanche said taking such a pledge would mean he would have to refuse the president’s instructions for the Justice Department to go after every violent criminal in this country, which he is not prepared to do.
Washington Examiner“I hope every attorney general in history would not answer that question differently. Just let’s play that out,” he said. “The elected president of the United States says something to me, and I’m supposed to say to you, I would say ‘nope’? I mean, that’s not the way it works.”
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While he has been supportive of Pirro’s decision, Blanche said he “certainly” listens to Trump when he opines on social media or speaks to the American people about ways to make the United States safer.
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But Mr. Blanche said he would “of course” take the president’s opinions into consideration.
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Washington Examiner“Will I take the president of the United States’s view on something into consideration? Yes, of course,” Blanche told NBC News host Kristen Welker on Meet the Press on Sunday morning.
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“Our prosecutors will act with integrity,” he continued. “We will prosecute without fear or any sort of favor. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing, and that’s what every Department of Justice should do.”
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Washington Times“So I will act with integrity. Our prosecutors will act with integrity. We will prosecute without fear or any sort of favor,” he said. “And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. And that’s what every Department of Justice should do.”
HuffPostTelling Welker that he and the DOJ’s prosecutors “will act with integrity,” he added, “We will prosecute without fear or any sort of favor. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. And that’s what every Department of Justice should do.”
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01 Washington Examiner “Judging her on a single case because of the evidence that we had is not fair,” he added later in the interview.
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02 The Guardian US In response to his demurring on the questions of always acting independently of the White House, Barb McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor, wrote on social media that Blanche’s stated position was “an appalling departure” from the justice department’s mission after the Watergate scandal that prompted Richard Nixon to resign from the presidency in 1974.
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03 Washington Times Mr. Blanche was sworn in as the nation’s top law enforcement officer last week, a few days after the Senate confirmed him to the post. He had been serving as acting attorney general for months after Pam Bondi left the Justice Department in April.
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04 HuffPost Blanche’s confirmation was in doubt because of his alleged bungling of the rollout of files related to sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, his oversight of the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that was created to pay the likes of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and fears that his loyalty to Trump would cloud his decision-making.
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05 The Daily Wire Yet, while the media routinely obsesses over hypothetical concerns regarding Trump’s control over the Justice Department, conservative critics point to history, arguing that the double standard is glaring. Under the previous administration, President Barack Obama used Attorney General Eric Holder and the DOJ as political weapons to advance a partisan agenda and bypass constitutional limitations.
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