Trump’s AG pick accused of massive corruption cover-up

President Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, the current acting attorney general Todd Blanche, would be dangerous to democracy, experts warn.

“A year ago, senators uncomfortable with the idea of Trump’s criminal-defense lawyer becoming the department’s No. 2 could point to Blanche’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee, where he said that ‘political prosecutions should never happen, period’ and that, if pressed to bring a bogus case, ‘I will follow the law,’” reported The New Yorker's Ruth Marcus on Sunday. “Now they have a record against which to judge those assurances. Will any of this matter to Republican senators—perhaps to members of the growing ‘wounded-bear caucus,’ who have been the targets of Trump’s fury?”

Marcus added, “A no vote from a single Republican on the committee could block the nomination. On the floor, just four Republican no votes could doom it. In a Senate that took its constitutional role seriously, Blanche would not win confirmation a second time. But, as John Thune, the Majority Leader, observed, ‘obviously most of our members are pretty deferential to who the President wants.’ Like the nominee it will consider, this Senate is more inclined to consent to Trump than to advise him.”

Marcus, a longtime political correspondent, cited as one example of Blanche’s seeming unfitness the fact that he submitted a legal complaint demanding construction of the White House ballroom in unprofessional language that could have been ripped from the president’s own social media posts.

“The motion began mid-rant,” Marcus wrote before quoting it. “‘The National Trust for Historic Preservation’ is a beautiful name, but even their name is FAKE.” It said that those seeking to stop the ballroom ‘suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome’ and ‘are represented by the lawyer for Barack Hussein Obama, Gregory Craig.’ Then it shifted to praising Trump’s brilliance—’a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t’—and to arguing that the ballroom was ‘being given FREE OF CHARGE AS A GIFT TO THE COUNTRY!’”

Marcus added, “This claim was dubious; the President has unsuccessfully sought a billion dollars in government funding. Yet it was also unfiltered Trump, a Truth Social post in the guise of a legal document, and it was met with predictable failure. But although the document was submitted to Richard Leon, the U.S. district judge who had issued the injunction, Blanche was targeting a different audience of one.”

Writing for AlterNet last week, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich similarly argued that Blanche is unfit to serve as attorney general. He specifically pointed to Blanche’s role in carving out a controversial immunity deal for the president and his family to protect them from future audits.

“The purpose of that immunity deal — which resulted from Trump’s own bizarre lawsuit against the IRS — should by now be clear,” Reich wrote. He elaborated that the clear purpose of the settlement is “‘to prevent any future government inquiry into the corrupt dealings of Trump and his family.’ Trump is the most corrupt president in American history. Since being in office for a second time, he’s so far increased his wealth by an estimated $4 billion, and his sons’ and daughters’ wealth by billions more.” This includes through the president and/or his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, their investments in critical minerals company Vulcan Elements, their investments in the drone manufacturer Powerus (which later won a lucrative government contract without competition), the Trump sons’ various meetings with foreign government officials (including from countries like the United Kingdom, Qatar, Vietnam and Hungary) with whom they are negotiating real estate transactions and the president trading stocks while in office.

“Trump has pardoned some of the most brazen financial criminals in American history, and one can only wonder what he received in return,” Reich wrote. “They include Philip Esformes, convicted in what Trump’s own Department of Justice described as the ‘largest health care fraud scheme ever charged’; Joseph Schwartz, convicted for a $38 million fraud scheme; and reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, convicted for multimillion-dollar bank fraud. He’s granted clemency to Lawrence Duran after a $205 million fraud conviction. He commuted Jason Galanis’s sentence and pardoned Devon Archer, both tied to tens of millions in fraud.”

Reich concluded, “If the ‘settlement’ remains in force, we will never know the details of any of these transactions, because the ‘settlement’ — devised and signed by Todd Blanche — will result in the largest cover-up of presidential wrongdoing and illegality in American history. Without it, Trump and his family could be required to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. For his role in this scam, Blanche should not be confirmed as attorney general. At the very least, his confirmation should be conditioned on this so-called ‘settlement’ being deemed null and void.”