Todd Blanche declines to pledge independence from White House

Key Points:

• US Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to guarantee that the Justice Department would always act independently from the White House and former President Donald Trump, stating no attorney general should make such a pledge.
• Blanche asserted that Trump would never ask him to engage in unethical or illegal actions, dismissing media narratives suggesting otherwise as false.
• His stance drew sharp criticism from legal experts like University of Michigan professor Barb McQuade, who called it a significant departure from the Justice Department's post-Watergate mission, accusing Blanche of turning the department into "Trump’s private law firm."
• Blanche was narrowly confirmed by the Senate with all Democrats opposing him; he previously served as Trump's criminal defense lawyer and has faced scrutiny over his handling of high-profile cases related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
• He defended Trump’s pardons of over 1,500 supporters convicted of attacking the US Capitol in 2021, emphasizing the president's right to issue pardons, while declining to comment on potential federal settlements for those individuals.