Trump says he would appoint Todd Blanche to permanently serve as US Attorney General: Report

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he will nominate Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to permanently assume the role. Blanche, who was Trump’s former personal lawyer, has aggressively pursued the Republican president’s agenda while leading the Justice Department in an acting role.

According to a video a White House aide posted online, Trump said at a dinner that he plans to nominate Blanche formally on Thursday. “We are going to make him permanent attorney general,” Trump said at the Rose Garden event. It is pertinent to note that Blanche assumed the role of Acting Attorney General after his former boss, Pam Bondi, was fired in April

At that time, Blanche insisted that he was not auditioning for the permanent post but made clear through splashy moves since taking the reins that he intended to prove his loyalty to Trump. During his time in the role, Blanche’s actions outraged Democrats and other critics who accuse him of still acting like Trump’s personal lawyer to carry out the president’s campaign of retribution.

Trump’s tight grip on Blanche

While Blanche has maintained that he feels no pressure from the president, the US Justice Department under him has increasingly advanced its pursuits of longtime Trump foes. However, Blanche has strongly rejected the accusations that the Trump administration has politicised the Justice Department and has said he is focused on correcting what he contends were past abuses by the Biden administration.

In April this year, former FBI Director James Comey was indicted over a social photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat to the president. The former FBI boss slammed the case, calling it “politically motivated” and said that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Justice Department pursues additional indictments against him.

Interestingly, Blanche separately appointed Joseph diGenova, an 81-year-old former Justice Department prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to oversee a Florida-based investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired over the last decade to undermine Trump.

A former federal prosecutor in New York, Blanche came to public prominence for his lead role on Trump’s defence team, including during the Republican’s hush money trial in New York. That perch afforded him, he has said, a firsthand look at what he contends was the weaponisation of the criminal justice system against Trump.

With inputs from The Associated Press.