Todd Blanche On Defending Trump Policies: ‘it’s A War, Man’

The Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Todd Blanche, let loose Friday, railing against judges blocking administration policies and denying that prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s enemies constitute weaponization of the justice system.

Speaking to a friendly audience of conservative lawyers in Washington, the former Trump defense attorney did not mince words and used some of his most colorful language to denounce the actions of the Justice Department under President Joe Biden.

“What happened the past four years within the United States Department of Justice, I’m going to say a Latin term: batshit crazy,” Blanche said to laughter from attendees at the Federalist Society’s annual lawyers’ conference.

The recent indictments of Trump’s political foes, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, have led to warnings that the Justice Department is bypassing traditional safeguards in order to mollify Trump. That perception has been reinforced by a social media post Trump directed to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to quickly charge James, Comey and others.

Trump also insisted Bondi install his former personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan as the top federal prosecutor in Virginia. Halligan, just days into the job, secured both indictments against Comey and James.

Both Comey and James have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are moving to quash the criminal cases against them on the grounds they were brought as “vindictive” prosecutions.

Blanche appeared incensed by the weaponization claims, which he said ignored the two federal prosecutions and two state prosecutions Trump faced after leaving office in 2021.

“When I read now that we’re weaponizing, I feel like I’m being gaslit, because we’re doing exactly the opposite,” the deputy attorney general said. “I take umbrage at the idea that the work that our prosecutors are doing is weaponization, because I have receipts. I know what happened the past couple years. I’ve lived it.”

Blanche was introduced as “General Blanche” at the event, although the No. 2 DOJ official is not commonly addressed that way. He kept up the martial theme by repeatedly referring to the wave of litigation over Trump policies as a “war,” arguing that liberal judges are involved in a broad effort to derail Trump’s agenda.

“They have a robe on but they are more political or certainly as political as the most liberal governor or D.A. … There’s a group of judges that are repeat players, and that’s obviously not by happenstance, that’s intentional, and it’s a war, man,” Blanche said. “It’s happening over and over and over again. … The system is not set up for efficiency when it comes to rogue activist judges. So, we lose days, we lose weeks, months, sometimes because of this, and that’s why activist groups do what they do.”

Blanche also said the Justice Department is moving to insulate its attorneys from ethics complaints administration critics have filed with local bar authorities in various states and Washington, D.C., seeking action against those lawyers’ bar licenses.

“The D.C. Bar in particular is one of the most activist, obnoxious bars when it comes to going after conservative lawyers. It’s out of this world,” he said, appearing to reference a disbarment effort against former DOJ lawyer Jeffrey Clark, a key figure in Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.

Blanche said the Justice Department was looking to move the investigation of such complaints “in house” and only refer them to bar authorities if warranted.

Blanche also griped about media coverage, complaining that journalists paint Trump’s immigration actions as overly harsh, while ignoring past comments by prominent Democrats like Hillary Clinton urging “no questions asked” deportations for immigrants who’d committed crimes.

Blanche was questioned on stage by Gene Hamilton, who was a top lawyer at the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration. Although the pair discussed some liberal critiques of Trump policies, there was no mention of actions the administration has taken that might be unpopular with the lawyers in attendance, such as Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms he dislikes.

Four of those law firms went to court to challenge the orders. Each won an injunction from a different judge, barring federal officials from implementing Trump’s directive. The administration is appealing, but has not sought to speed the cases to the Supreme Court.