All About Todd Blanche: At Best, Misleading; At Worst, Disingenuous

With Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing set to begin midweek, Andrew and Mary use this episode to look at the totality of his tenure at the Justice Department, detailing example after example of how — despite his role as the chief lawyer for the United States — he is still functioning as the de facto personal lawyer for the president. They start things off by dissecting a deeply consequential and searing opinion from District Judge Kathleen Williams over Trump’s IRS lawsuit, effectively finding, in Mary’s telling, that it “was collusion. It was the president being on both sides of that case, and it's no adversity between the parties.” Then, the co-hosts take a broader gaze into what Blanche has done: his handling of the Epstein files and Ghislaine Maxwell, the ongoing investigations and attempted prosecutions of Trump’s political enemies and how he has used the DOJ as the president’s personal law firm. Mary and Andrew also review the Justice Department’s recent actions with Blanche at the helm, including an example from the past week of the ongoing “assault on journalists”: subpoenaing New York Times journalists who wrote about the jet gifted to the US by the Qatari government.

Further Reading:

• Here is a transcript of Mary’s testimony during former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2025-01-16_-_testimony_-_mccord.pdf • Judge Williams’ Decision: Here is the Order in Trump v. IRS

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