{"id":35101,"date":"2024-11-24T01:27:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T07:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=35101"},"modified":"2024-11-24T04:26:40","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T10:26:40","slug":"will-trumps-former-defense-lawyer-protect-the-justice-department-from-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=35101","title":{"rendered":"Will Trump’s former defense lawyer protect the Justice Department from Trump?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 When Matt Gaetz abruptly withdrew<\/a> as President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s candidate for attorney general on Thursday, many career attorneys in the Justice Department breathed a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hours later, though, Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/a>, a longtime loyalist who backed the former president\u2019s lies about the 2020 election and said \u201chorrible\u201d people<\/a> in the department were trying to make names for themselves by \u201cgoing after Donald Trump and weaponizing our legal system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Department attorneys now hope that Trump\u2019s pick for the critical No. 2 position at the department \u2014 Todd Blanche, the president-elect\u2019s defense lawyer \u2014 can help protect the department\u2019s career civil servants from Trump\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People close to Blanche say his past work as a career federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York gives him an understanding of the department\u2019s tradition of barring presidents and politicians from influencing individual criminal investigations. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some current DOJ officials hope that Blanche, who as deputy attorney general will oversee day-to-day operations in the department if confirmed, can help prevent a worst-case scenario: Trump wielding federal law enforcement as a cudgel against his political enemies.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s more the kind of guy I would have expected. Intelligent, former federal prosecutor, experience working as an attorney, no statutory rape,\u201d said a source inside the Justice Department, referring to the allegation that Gaetz\u00a0paid a 17-year-old for sex<\/a>, which the former congressman has denied. \u201cYou know, small things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blanche served as Trump\u2019s lead criminal defense lawyer in the\u00a0Stormy Daniels hush money case<\/a>\u00a0brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump was ultimately\u00a0convicted<\/a>\u00a0of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and became the first former president to be convicted of a crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blanche, who until recently was a registered Democrat<\/a>, left<\/a> the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in early 2023 to represent Trump in the case. Trump’s <\/em><\/strong>sentencing has been repeatedly delayed<\/a> and may never happen now that he\u2019s the president-elect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition team, praised Blanche and said that Trump was re-elected by the American people to \u201cchange the status quo in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why he has chosen brilliant and highly-respected leaders, like well-respected attorney and prosecutor Todd Blanche to serve in his Administration,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She did not respond to questions from NBC News about whether the administration would maintain the long-standing policy of limiting White House contacts with DOJ officials and whether Blanche would follow the ethics recommendations of career DOJ officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some current and former DOJ officials say Blanche\u2019s close relationship and record of legal work with Trump has raised concerns. They are concerned that Blanche won\u2019t stand up to Trump, who throughout his first term repeatedly flouted post-Watergate restrictions<\/a> on contacts between the Justice Department and the White House that are in place to stop presidents from using federal law enforcement to target their political enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the president\u2019s personal criminal defense attorney. That\u2019s what his job will be,\u201d said one law enforcement official. \u201cHe\u2019s there to protect the president, not the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Justice Department employees were cautiously optimistic that Blanche \u2014 whom one referred to as \u201cthe closest thing to \u2018Team Normal\u2019 that we\u2019ll see\u201d \u2014 would at least prevent some of the scenarios <\/strong>they\u2019ve been conjuring since Trump won the 2024 presidential race and nominated Gaetz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Justice Department official said people are feeling better about Blanche because he\u2019s a legitimate lawyer and a former Justice Department official, but \u201cthat reflects the low expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mimi Rocah, the district attorney for Westchester County, New York, said on MSNBC last week that she\u2019d worked with Blanche as a federal prosecutor in New York and that Blanche knows what the Justice Department is supposed to be and how it is meant to function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe believes in the vision of the Department of Justice to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons,\u201d Rocah said. \u201cAnd I do hope and believe that he knows that, and that he will continue that once he rises to the occasion in that role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former colleague described Blanche as a smart and thorough attorney well-versed in the intricacies of the Justice Department, and the independent role it is meant to play. That person anticipated that Blanche would be a moderate relative to Gaetz, and despite his rapport with Trump would be unlikely to carry out an illegal order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Bromwich, who previously served as the Justice Department\u2019s inspector general, said Blanche would be taking on \u201cone of the hardest jobs in government\u201d with \u201cenormous\u201d management challenges, and that his position as the president\u2019s criminal defense attorney would complicate matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeedless to say, we\u2019ve never faced this circumstance before,\u201d Bromwich said. \u201cI think it\u2019s ethically problematic for Blanche. I think one of the reasons Trump selected him is that he\u2019s comfortable with Blanche, he communicates with him, and that they have a relationship in which Blanche does what Trump wants him to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be an extraordinarily challenging job for Blanche,\u201d Bromwich added. \u201cI think the ethos and the culture that he was brought up in in the U.S. attorney\u2019s office is the antithesis of how Trump uses the criminal justice system, which is that it should do what he wants, rewards his friends and punishes his enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Trump first took office in 2017, he didn\u2019t know his deputy attorney general well, and their relationship immediately became vital and volatile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rod Rosenstein, a career federal prosecutor with a reputation<\/a> for being nonpartisan, chose FBI Director Robert Mueller to serve as a special counsel after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself <\/a>from the bureau\u2019s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision infuriated Trump, who berated Sessions<\/a> and Rosenstein<\/a> for it. For the next two years, though, Rosenstein defended Mueller and protected his team as it completed its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mueller found that Trump and his team welcomed help from Moscow during the 2016 election but did not find enough evidence to prosecute them for coordinating with Russia. Mueller reached no conclusion about whether Trump had obstructed justice. Rosenstein resigned<\/a> from the DOJ in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosenstein told NBC News this week that Blanche would face challenges. He said Trump was \u201cvery hands on\u201d and called him directly during his time in the DOJ\u2019s No. 2 position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresident Trump often called the deputy attorney general, that is me, when he wanted something done, and sometimes we were able to do it, and sometimes we weren\u2019t,\u201d Rosenstein recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with that kind of relationship. I think the president obviously seems to want to put into senior jobs people who have been unfailingly loyal to him,\u201d Rosenstein added. \u201cIt\u2019s legal to do that. The risk is, if you prioritize loyalty over competence, you might not get accomplished what you wanted to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Rosenstein said the deputy attorney general has a duty to prevent the president or White House officials from trying to improperly influence criminal investigations. He said the department\u2019s No. 2 official must \u201cmake sure things are implemented in a nonpartisan way\u201d in all criminal investigations. He added: \u201cSometimes that requires saying \u2018no\u2019 if the president or somebody in the White House wants to pursue a particular case that the department concludes is not appropriate to pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not hypothetical, right? It\u2019s real under Trump,\u201d Rosenstein said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority in July gave the president \u201cabsolute immunity\u201d when it comes to his interactions with the attorney general, including ordering criminal investigations of specific individuals. But that immunity does not extend to the attorney general, deputy attorney general or other DOJ prosecutors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the president to call for the prosecution of particular individuals is unusual, but it\u2019s not illegal,\u201d Rosenstein said. \u201cHowever, it would be illegal for department officials to implement that kind of a request, and so you need to make sure to serve your appropriate role as an official of the Justice Department.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosenstein added, \u201cThere are some things that the president may want that you can\u2019t do. You just have to tell him \u2018no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosenstein said the deputy attorney general also needs to have the management experience and temperament to get things done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt requires you to know how to manage the institution, not from a partisan perspective, right? You don\u2019t come in and say, \u2018Hey, we need to fire all the Democrats and hire all Republicans.\u2019\u201d Rosenstein said. \u201cYou need people who actually know how to litigate, know how to put together and try cases. You can\u2019t send a politician into court to try to win a case. You need a lawyer. And so they need to make sure they have people who know how to get that job done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blanche must also be able to withstand intense public scrutiny. Rosenstein said the media environment is far different than it was when he joined the DOJ in 1990, when career officials \u2014 or even a deputy attorney general \u2014 had \u201cvery little chance of getting any national attention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blanche could also be targeted on social media by the president himself if he stands up to him behind the scenes, as Trump has done to his own Justice Department appointees before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bromwich, the former DOJ inspector general, predicted that Blanche, given Trump\u2019s track record during his first term, is on a mission impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it will be enormously difficult for Blanche to balance the orders he gets from the president with what he knows is the right thing to do,\u201d Bromwich said. \u201cIf I were he, I would have stayed as far away from the Justice Department as I could. I don\u2019t think it will end well for him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 When Matt Gaetz abruptly withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s candidate for attorney general on Thursday, many career attorneys in the Justice Department breathed a sigh of relief. Hours later, though, Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a longtime loyalist who backed the former president\u2019s lies about the 2020 election and said \u201chorrible\u201d people in the department […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2877,31343,1485],"class_list":["post-35101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-department-of-justice","tag-from","tag-protection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35103,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35101\/revisions\/35103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}