President Donald Trump holds a Cabinet meeting, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in the Cabinet Room.
President Donald Trump's attorney general, Todd Blanche, has frequently indicated that he plans on meddling in the midterm elections per his boss' desires. Now a conservative columnist is calling him out — not only for this, but for his other alleged abuses of power.
After reviewing Trump's and Blanche's ongoing and/or unsuccessful attempts to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, his daughter Maurene Comey and former Trump official Cassidy Hutchinson, conservative columnist David French wrote for The New York Times on Sunday that "I’m going to stop there, but even as I do, I feel as if I’m misleading you. I’m stopping because of space, not because that’s the end of the outrages. In case after case after case, the Department of Justice is targeting Trump opponents, making frivolous arguments and engaging in vindictive, meritless prosecutions."
He added, "I blame Trump, but I also blame Blanche. He doesn’t understand his own job. We all know that Trump has an extreme view of executive power that renders him a virtual elected monarch. His administration’s actions extend well beyond conventional “unitary executive theory,” which puts a premium on presidential control over the executive branch. He treats the law as his plaything, deciding on his own whim which laws will be enforced and which ones will not."
French continued, "It is true that the president is the boss of every cabinet official. He can fire them at will. But it is also true that the attorney general is different from every other member of the cabinet. Unlike, say, Pete Hegseth, Blanche has three masters, not one. The attorney general and all the lawyers working for him also answer to the judiciary, which not only decides the cases he brings; it also governs the conduct of D.O.J. officials in court. And he also answers to the bar — rules of ethics are binding on every attorney, including government attorneys."
Earlier in October, former Trump Homeland Security official Miles Taylor wrote that "to Trump’s henchmen, let me offer a friendly reminder before you move to decertify election results or prevent the peaceful transfer of power: the man you’re doing this for is putting you at risk… he doesn’t care about you… and even if he did, he cannot save you from accountability."
Also earlier in October, liberal commentator Steven Harper warned that "Blanche might consider this: Trump is a fickle friend who can quickly become a fierce foe."
He continued, "In the near term, he’s angling to thwart the midterm elections in which Republicans are poised to lose President Donald Trump’s death grip on Congress. In the long run, the nation will bear the consequences of his weaponization of the Justice Department for years to come."