Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is drawing ire from some of President Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters for resisting what those allies view as the more radical or punitive legal instincts of the Trump agenda.
The New York Times reported Monday that Blanche has occasionally intervened to block or delay prosecutions that lack evidentiary support, a posture that right‑wing influencers interpret as overreach and disloyalty.
"Mr. Blanche has also shown himself on occasion to be an institutionalist, holding off the president’s more extreme impulses. He has defended some subordinates against attack and pushed back, with limited success, against prosecutions he believes are unsupported by the evidence, seen by critics on the right as proof of disloyalty," the report read.
Peter Ticktin, a longtime Trump insider, accused Blanche of intentionally delaying essential components of the president’s broader legal strategy.
“Everything that needs to be going forward in order to make Donald Trump’s presidency work is being stalled intentionally by this man,” Ticktin told the Times.
The piece noted that in late September, Blanche discovered that Ed Martin — a subordinate with broad authority from the White House — had sent a threatening letter to a former FBI agent who testified against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in the Sandy Hook defamation litigation. Blanche confronted Martin, demanding the letter be rescinded.
According to the report, he rebuked Martin, asking why he would pick “a pointless fight that would embarrass the administration on behalf of a fringe activist.” Martin complied, per the report.
That exchange underscored Blanche’s occasional role as a brake on aggressive maneuvers.
Yet Blanche remains far from a full-fledged internal opponent of the Trump agenda.
Over seven months in office, he has enabled many of the administration’s high‑stakes legal efforts, including cases that critics argue subvert longstanding Justice Department norms, the report noted.
And when he has pushed back, he has often been sidelined or overruled by the White House and its allies inside the department.
The report also highlighted a flashpoint that occurred in a recent Virginia prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James. Federal prosecutors indicted James on civil fraud charges — despite repeated warnings from Blanche and Attorney General Pam Bondi that the case lacked strong merit.
The report quoted officials as saying that Blanche and Bondi were not consulted on the timing or drafting of the indictment.
Lindsey Halligan, a Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney with relatively little criminal law experience, spearheaded the case.
Some voices on the right now portray Blanche as a roadblock to Trump’s more ambitious legal aims.
Other critics highlight Blanche’s prior registration as a Democrat, his occasional defense of subordinate attorneys and his reluctance to pursue conspiratorial prosecutions as further proof that he may not fully embrace the expectations of Trump’s most devoted backers.
