Presidents have the constitutional right to set law enforcement priorities, including prosecutorial decisions by the Department of Justice. But the Constitution also gives Congress several leverage points to check that power, including the power to confirm nominees for attorney general.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has an established record, first as deputy attorney general and now as acting attorney general, of abetting President Donald Trump’s worst instincts when it comes to using the power of the Justice Department to harass and intimidate political opponents while enriching his allies. The Senate has no obligation to rubber-stamp a political enforcer as Trump’s pick for the nation’s top law enforcement post. Indeed, it is senators’ duty to insist on a better candidate with a record of saying no to Trump when prudence and the law require it.
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By the same token, Trump’s antipathy toward President Joe Biden’s Justice Department is well-founded. Under Biden, the Justice Department spied on Republican lawmakers, persecuted Catholics, and attempted to criminalize political dissent. This came on top of unprecedented abuses of state prosecutorial power to pursue trumped-up criminal and civil charges intended to force Trump out of politics. The Democratic Party’s use of lawfare to attack and harass Trump and his allies was a historic abuse of power that caused lasting damage to the legitimacy of our justice system.
As justified as Trump’s complaints of Democratic prosecutorial abuse are, the right response is not eye-for-an-eye retaliation. Yet that is the path Trump has chosen with his “Weaponization Working Group,” and Blanche has been one of the leaders of that effort. At Blanche’s behest, the Justice Department has launched investigations into or secured indictments against former CIA Director John Brennan, former special counsel Jack Smith, Federal Reserve Board Gov. Lisa Cook, former FBI Director James Comey, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell.
Some of these cases may have merit, including the one against Bolton over mishandling sensitive national security information, which was recently settled. But many of these prosecutions were weak and have been thrown out. The investigations into Cook and Powell are especially damning because neither was involved in lawfare against Trump or his allies. They merely disagreed with Trump politically and became targets of the president’s own lawfare campaign.
Blanche was also the mastermind of the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” debacle, which was criticized by Republican senators and has since been abandoned by the Trump administration itself. Again, Trump had a valid claim against the Internal Revenue Service for negligently releasing his tax returns. But turning that valid grievance into a self-dealing slush fund for political allies was a miscarriage of justice.
CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS HAVE NO INTEGRITY
Republicans were right to condemn the Biden Justice Department’s weaponization of justice. They should be just as clear-eyed when Trump does the same.
The Senate’s duty is fidelity to the Constitution. Blanche has failed to demonstrate the ability to separate Trump’s political grievances from the public interest. He should not be confirmed.
