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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, marking a swift rise for his former personal lawyer that stands in stark contrast with the fate of his predecessor, former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Bondi was fired in April after failing to deliver on the president’s demands for criminal cases against his adversaries and following months of scrutiny over the Justice Department’s handling of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.
Blanche, who was brought into the department as deputy attorney general and then elevated to acting attorney general after Bondi’s firing, made clear that he was intent on proving his loyalty to Trump by accelerating investigations into the president's foes and announcing a nearly $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate the president’s allies for alleged political persecution.
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But even after Bondi shifted responsibility for the administration’s handling of the Epstein files to Blanche and he was forced to scrap the idea for the fund following a bipartisan firestorm, his steadier public performance appears to have kept him in the president’s good graces, avoiding the kind of sustained criticism that ultimately sank Bondi.
“It may not be so much about what Blanche has done already but more so about what he has said or signaled he would do in the future if confirmed,” Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, told Newsweek.
Blanche may be “willing to do more than others to push forward the president's retribution agenda, even if those actions take a personal toll,” he said. “Trump may have come to believe he's running out of time and prefers an attorney general willing to be more aggressive.”
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Pam Bondi Blames Blanche for Epstein Files Issues
Bondi’s ouster came after months of scrutiny over the rollout of the Epstein case files under a law that mandated the release of the documents, a process that drew bipartisan criticism for delays and redactions.
During a closed-door interview with lawmakers last week, Bondi acknowledged that there had been “redaction errors” that exposed victims’ personal information. But she shifted responsibility, saying Blanche had overseen the process.
Later, she defended Blanche, saying that she praised his management of what she called a “Herculean task” and said his ethics “are beyond reproach.”
While Bondi was held responsible for the release of the files, the issue has not hurt Blanche as much despite his central role.
Bondi had come under scrutiny since early last year when she raised expectations for the full release of the files, before backtracking. That prompted Congress to step in and pass a law compelling the release of the files.
Blanche Grilled on Epstein Files in Heated Exchange
Blanche’s ability to navigate political pressure was on full display during a tense congressional hearing this week, when lawmakers pressed him on the Epstein files.
In one heated exchange, Democratic Representative Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania accused Blanche of overseeing redactions that concealed evidence contradicting Trump’s denials of flying on Epstein’s private jet.
Noting that Blanche was previously the president’s personal lawyer, Dean questioned whether his obligation was to Epstein’s victims or to Trump.
Blanche pushed back, insisting that the Justice Department would “always protect victims.” His tone remained measured during the hearing, even as questions grew sharper—contrasting with the more combative posture that Bondi took when similarly grilled by lawmakers.
Trump's 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' Gets Nuked
The $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was established last month to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns and aimed at correcting what officials have insisted was the weaponization of federal law enforcement during the Biden administration.
But it quickly ignited a backlash, with a judge pausing it and Republicans and Democrats expressing concern about the lack of oversight and the potential for payouts to participants in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
While Blanche came close to pushing it through, he reversed course in the face of the growing political opposition: “We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” he told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Through a rare reversal, Blanche managed to limit the damage by decisively pulling the plug early instead of allowing a prolonged fight, defusing a controversy that had stalled legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies and threatened his standing.
Still, Trump has refused to commit to scrapping it permanently, telling CNN on Wednesday that he still considered the fund a “beautiful thing.”
Blanche Advances Cases
Bondi was fired after failing to deliver criminal cases against Trump’s political enemies. She secured indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James last year, but a judge dismissed the cases after finding that the prosecutor who filed them, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed.
Blanche has worked to advance cases against Trump’s foes while rejecting accusations that the Trump administration has politicized the Justice Department.
Under Blanche’s watch, Comey was indicted in April over a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat the president.
Blanche separately appointed Joseph diGenova, an 81-year-old former Justice Department prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to oversee a Florida-based investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired over the last decade to undermine Trump.
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