Todd Blanche’s ‘cringily jokey’ briefing trashed by legal expert

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche looks at his watch as he holds a press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 15, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Donald Trump's attorney general, Todd Blanche, participated in an unorthodox press conference on Tuesday, one in which a legal expert observed he acted more like Trump's press secretary than like his top law enforcement officer.

"Well, Boris, I'm not exactly sure what that was that we just saw," attorney and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig told anchor Boris Sanchez. "Was that the Attorney General of the United States? Was that someone trying to be the next press secretary to the White House? At times, Todd Blanche was AG-like. He was stern and serious in talking about law enforcement issues. At times, he went way out of the lane of an Attorney General and, as you said, talked about issues that have nothing to do with DOJ — whether the war in Iran was properly authorized by Congress, why there's suddenly new concern about AI, and whether that's tied to the midterms."

He added, "Those are overtly political opinions. At other times, he was awkwardly, cringily jokey, constantly cracking jokes about who's sweating, who has the microphone, and the bald guy. I've known Todd Blanche for a long time. I don't know what that shtick is that he just offered us."

"But to the most important point here: attorneys general of both parties, going back decades, have done their utmost to keep a level of separation and independence from the White House. There have been policies; lawyers have pored over this. They've done everything they can to avoid even the appearance of the AG having anything to do with the political side of the White House. And here we have the Attorney General of the United States standing in the Rose Garden of the White House, giving not just a DOJ briefing, but an overtly political briefing as well," Honig said.

The former prosecutor noted Blanche's irritated response to a question about Trump's son receiving an expensive wedding gift from a Russian oligarch connected to dictator Vladimir Putin, noting Blanche's response: "I'm not going to discuss any ongoing investigation. I'm not going to get into details. I'm not going to confirm or deny it.'

"Yet when asked about that story, he was quite clear that he found there's no basis to investigate. At some point, I think he snapped at one of the reporters, 'Investigate what?' So interesting how he's very close-mouthed when he doesn't want to address something — he says, 'I'm not going there.' But when he wants to go there, he goes there."

Honig has previously and harshly criticized Trump's Justice Department. In August he told CNN that "ordinarily, the first order of business would be restoring DOJ's political independence and restoring DOJ's credibility in the courts, but it doesn't seem that Blanche is super interested in either of those.

In July Honig blasted the Justice Department for subpoenaing journalists who criticize the administration, telling CNN that "the Justice Department’s own internal policy — most recently updated in April 2025, during the current Trump administration — exposes just how abusive the Times subpoenas are. The newly revised Justice Manual specifies that subpoenas should be served on journalists only as ‘an extraordinary measure to be deployed as a last resort’ in a case of ‘substantial importance’ to law enforcement or national security.”

In June he accurately predicted that Trump's attempt to overturn birthright citizenship would fail at the Supreme Court, arguing to CNN that "this all goes back to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, ratified in 1868 after the end of the Civil War. That provision tells us that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States. Over the past 158 years, we have understood that broadly — in our courts and Congress — to mean if you're born here, you're a citizen regardless of your parents' status.”

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