Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche pauses while speaking during a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 30, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Trump officials say they are confident their behavior and deeds will bring down a firestorm of indictments and investigations after Democrats take the House (and possibly the Senate) in November — and later the White House.
“Everybody’s afraid that the next administration — if we don’t win, we’re all going to be investigated and indicted,” said Deputy AG Todd Blanche at Friday’s CPAC event in Texas. “Think about that.”
Republicans in charge of the White House and Congress are desperate to ramp up enthusiasm as MAGA voters splinter off and fall away in the months leading up to the November midterm elections. But in selling fear to juice participation, social media critics say Blanche may have let on to a guilty conscience.
“They should stop committing crimes then,” piped one commenter on X.
Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee are already calling out Blanche — who was Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney during his hush money conviction — of “stunning interference” in the investigation of convicted sex-trafficker and Trump long-time personal friend Jeffrey Epstein.
“Given Blanche’s close personal ties to Donald Trump, this reeks of a continued coverup to protect key names in the Trump administration,” said U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).
Critics say other things smell wrong about Blanche’s personal work under Trump. A ProPublica investigation revealed Blanche owned at least $159,000 worth of crypto-related assets when he "shut down' an investigation into crypto companies, dealers and exchanges launched during President Joe Biden’s term.
Blanche also personally opted to visit and quiz incarcerated sex-trafficker and Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell in what one former prosecutor called a ploy to “whitewash” Trump’s involvement with Epstein’s far-reaching teen abuse racket.
"Ghislaine Maxwell paints this absurd universe where she has done nothing wrong, where all the witnesses against her were lying, where the jurors who convicted her were wrong, where the various judges who upheld their conviction were wrong," said former prosecutor Elie Honig. "And, by the way, nobody else did anything wrong. In fact, Michael, she barely even implicates Jeffrey Epstein. … [S]he went in there and basically offered a complete whitewash.”
But Blanche expressed outrage that anybody would dare to scrutinize Trump and his staff.
“This is America and the existing administration is afraid that they’re going to get indicted,” Blanch said, while also ignoring examples of Trump’s own personallawfare as he appears to wield the “independent” Department of Justice to wage war against his perceived enemies. This include the U.S. Department of Justice unsuccessfully attempting to secure indictments against six sitting Democratic lawmakers who urged members of the military to follow the law and not obey illegal orders.
"Political lawfare waged by either side undermines America’s criminal justice system, which is the gold standard of the world,” said prominent Republican U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) of the failed indictments. “Thankfully in this instance, a jury saw the attempted indictments for what they really were. Political lawfare is not normal, not acceptable, and needs to stop.”
Trump's prosecutors also appear to be facing a backlash against U.S. juries with jurors refusing a felony indictment of a protester who threw a sandwich at a Customers and Border Protection officer. Two federal grand juries in Virginia rejected Trump’s attempts to prosecute New York attorney general Letitia James -- who had successfully prosecuted Trump for hiding information -- and another refused to indict Trump critic and former FBI director James Comey.