Two former prosecutors and ex-colleagues of attorney general nominee Todd Blanche are speaking out Wednesday ahead of his first hearing before the U.S. Senate.
In a column for MS NOW, Mimi Rocah and Perry Carbone wrote that Blanche "cannot be trusted" and that the "Senate Judiciary Committee should reject his nomination to be attorney general."
The long-time legal experts said that the role of the head of the Justice Department was to exercise "independence" in the position and Blanche continues to fail in that endeavor by following the demands of President Donald Trump
Both recall working beside Blanch at the Southern District of New York's U.S. Attorney's office. They said that at one point, they "considered him a close friend."
They explained that as prosecutors, they're taught to investigate anyone and everyone regardless of whether they had money, power or were politically connected, "not to bring or win cases at all costs, to advance political agendas or to serve powerful individuals."
"In our view, Blanche has turned his back on these principles," the lawyers wrote before listing the latest example they believe is disqualifying for any attorney general nominee: a judgment Monday that included a sharp rebuke from a federal judge.
Judge Kathleen Williams not only denounced the case as "an exercise in self-dealing," the lawyers wrote, but she also bashed Trump's so-called "settlement" over his IRS lawsuit, a case "that had no viable basis in law or fact."
All of the lawyers involved earned the judge's rebuke for Blanche's effort to settle a case brought by Trump against the IRS over a data leak involving hundreds of thousands of other Americans. Their agreement would have set up a fund to pay off those who believe they were targets of the U.S. government.
"In other words, Blanche used Justice Department powers to help facilitate a facially frivolous lawsuit against an agency the president controls and then claimed to settle it, including by signing away the IRS’ enforcement authority. This is Blanche acting to benefit Trump personally, not in the interests of the American public," the lawyers argued.
Further, Blanche has been willing to let Trump dictate how the Justice Department is run. Blanche argued in an April press conference that Trump has a “right” and a “duty” to run federal cases against people who investigated him. Under Blanche's leadership, the lawyers argued, the DOJ had taken a hit in the trust that judges had for it. Cases have been dismissed, and U.S. attorneys working for the DOJ have been humiliated in court, all for Trump's political war against his personal foes.
It doesn't even scratch the surface of impropriety, they said, turning to attack Blanche for his handling of the release of investigatory files around Jeffrey Epstein.
"Our concern is not political; all presidents are entitled to appoint senior Justice Department officials who share their law enforcement priorities. Our concern is institutional: whether the Justice Department will continue to exist to serve the American people and whether Americans will have faith in its decisions and actions," they closed.
