U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the members of the media after disembarking Air Force One as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., April 12, 2026.
It has been no secret that President Donald Trump is desperate to weaponize the Justice Department against his perceived enemies during his second term, but as one former agency staffer revealed to CNN, he continues to face a severe roadblock in this goal: MAGA's competence problem.
CNN on Tuesday published an in-depth look at Todd Blanche, the man who has risen from Trump's personal attorney to deputy to attorney general under Pam Bondi, to now serving as the acting attorney general in the wake of her departure. The outlet characterized his recent moves as an "audition" to land him the AG job permanently, as he has spent the last two weeks engaged in "fights to prove he’s the man to deliver on Trump’s biggest priority: prosecuting the president’s political adversaries."
"Trump has commended Blanche’s work as acting attorney general so far, and, according to current and former administration officials who spoke to CNN, the job appears to be his to lose," the network reported.
Despite impressing the president so far, sources within the DOJ told CNN that Blanche is likely to face the same strong headwinds that Bondi did in pursuing Trump's weaponization agenda — and they are headwinds that any new AG is likely to face as well.
"Part of the reason the weaponization work has been difficult is that you need people who are MAGA and who are really competent,” Chad Mizelle, former chief of staff for Bondi, told CNN. “Many career prosecutors are not interested in this kind of work. It’s a very small group of people."
Mizelle, a former DOJ colleague of Blanche, added that the inverse of this competency problem is also a major hindrance, as any cases they can get in front of a judge and jury will also face down opposition from "top defense attorneys." Mizelle, a devoted MAGA acolyte, was nevertheless confident in Blanche's ability to get the prosecutions done.
CNN added that Blanche or another candidate will, "Like Bondi... face low morale among prosecutors and the persistent controversy surrounding the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files."
"The high profile prosecutions of Trump’s political foes must survive judges and grand juries who have so far rebuffed many of the attempts," the report explained. "And buy-in from career prosecutors tasked with the investigations isn’t guaranteed."
CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig explained that career prosecutors are likely to rebuff these investigations due to the weakness of the cases themselves.
“DOJ prosecutors generally do not shy away from challenging, boldface cases; if anything, they’re more likely to be drawn towards high-stakes matters,” Honig, a former state and federal prosecutor, said. “So when you see career, nonpolitical prosecutors expressing doubts about certain cases with political overtones, that’s typically because they simply don’t see the proof to support a criminal charge. DOJ prosecutors are aggressive but they’re not reckless, and they won’t bring a charge that they don’t believe will stick.”