A Blanche Check for Dirty Business: A Deep Dive on the Acting AG Before His Confirmation Hearings
The latest kleptocratic actions by the Trump administration from the week of June 22, 2026
A key tactic of kleptocrats is to say they are fighting corruption, when they are doing the exact opposite. Instead, they use prosecution as a tool to go after their political enemies and anyone who would question them or hold them accountable. This is a way that they politicize law enforcement and use taxpayer dollars to protect their cronies and avoid consequences for their own potential wrongdoing.
In most of our states, the attorneys general are independent, often elected directly by the voters. They are expected to be faithful to the law, not to the governor.
The federal level isn’t quite as strict in terms of direct accountability to the voters. At the federal level, at least for the last half-decade, we have understood the Attorney General (the head of the Department of Justice, or DOJ) to be independent. Presidents, by tradition, do not direct the Attorney General to carry out prosecutions. The Attorney General and DOJ staff are also bound by written rules that prevent conflicts of interest and other ethical problems. That has all gone out the window with this administration.
Donald Trump named Todd Blanche as acting Attorney General in April after Pam Bondi stepped down. (See our article, “Department of Revenge” for a summary of Bondi’s greatest hits in politicizing the justice department.) Earlier this month, Trump nominated Blanche to permanently serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official. The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled his confirmation hearings for mid-July,
Todd Blanche was previously Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney. He was named Deputy Attorney General in March 2025, and has been acting Attorney General for just over two months. Just like his predecessor, he has played exactly by the kleptocrat’s playbook: prosecuting political opponents and dropping investigations into Trump allies and cronies.
In this week’s post, we’ll give you a run-down of his kleptocratic tendencies. It’s a long list, but we’ll end with the most important takeaway—what you can do to pressure the Senate to reject Blanche’s nomination to US Attorney General.
Who Does He Work For?
Kleptocrats use the law to control people, but they don’t apply it to themselves. Instead of applying the “rule of law” equally to everyone, kleptocrats weaponize the law against their enemies while ensuring that they and their inner circle can act above the law.
In February, Deputy Attorney General Blanche told leaders of all 93 US Attorney’s Offices that President Trump is their “chief client.” Not we the people, not the law. President Trump.
But it’s more than speeches. Within weeks of his confirmation, DOJ ethics lawyers formally advised Blanche to recuse from matters involving Trump in his personal capacity. He did not. CNN reported in May 2026 that he remained involved in Trump-related cases despite that directive. (Senator Schiff launched an inquiry into this matter that same month). According to the CNN article, the DOJ’s public response was essentially that they would not have a blanket recusal for Blanche in these matters.
Blanche also personally signed off on a DOJ settlement addendum protecting Trump and his family from tax audits and enforcement actions in perpetuity. He also said publicly that he was placing “roadblocks” to make it harder for future administrations to prosecute Trump.
Crypto Enforcement and Self-Dealing
Todd Blanche isn’t just looking out for the president. Some recent media investigations suggest that he might also be using his position to enrich himself.
ProPublica reported that Blanche held between $159,000 and $485,000 in crypto assets in April 2025. As documented by the American Bar Association, numerous crypto companies have been involved in all kinds of pay-to-play acts to get out of prosecution by the DOJ. That same month, according to Fortune, Blanche issued a memo ending DOJ investigations into crypto companies—including companies where he held assets—and dissolving the team at the department that worked on crypto fraud and money-laundering enforcement. Blanche’s Bitcoin holdings rose 34% between when he issued the memo and when he eventually divested. When he did divest, he reportedly transferred the assets to his adult children and a grandchild rather than liquidating them. Following ProPublica’s reporting, six senators signed a letter to Blanche, calling his actions a “glaring” conflict of interest and demanding “details about how and when Blanche’s actions were cleared and by whom.”
Getting Revenge on Accountability Officials
Meanwhile, Blanche has played a central role in Trump’s efforts to retaliate against his perceived critics. Here are just a few examples.
In August of 2025, The New York Times reported that then-Deputy Attorney General Blanche pressured Todd Gilbert, the US Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, to investigate Biden administration officials for handling Russia investigation documents. When DOJ staff didn’t agree that there was evidence and refused to remove those officials, Blanche and others forced Gilbert to resign.
In April of this year, the DOJ also indicted former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly threatening the president by posting a photo of shells that spell out “86 47.” Bloomberg reported that the DOJ has been pursuing additional charges against Comey for allegedly leaking classified information since Blanche became acting AG.
Also in April, the DOJ’s “Weaponization Working Group” released a report accusing the Biden DOJ of politically targeting anti-abortion activists under the FACE Act, and then fired the attorneys who brought those cases.
Hundreds of employees who worked on January 6 cases or the Jack Smith special counsel investigations were also terminated.
Targeting Civil Society
But kleptocrats don’t just focus on government officials. They also go after independent civil society and media, which both play an important role in exposing wrongdoing and abuse of power.
In September of last year, Blanche said that “organized” protests should be investigated after they interrupted Trump’s dinner at a restaurant. The same month, Deputy Attorney General Blanche’s office directed multiple US Attorney’s Offices to investigate the Open Society Foundations, led by philanthropists George Soros and his son Alex Soros. The Open Society Foundations are a major funder of liberal nonprofit organizations and activists.
Blanche and other leaders tried to bring criminal charges against Kilmar Ábrego García, according to The New York Times. For context, the Trump administration illegally deported Ábrego García to El Salvador in March 2025, despite a 2019 court order protecting him. The court later dismissed the case for vindictive prosecution, citing Blanche’s statements.
In April of this year, the DOJ also indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center for its work to monitor white supremacist groups in the United States, claiming that the nonprofit organization had defrauded donors by having a paid informant program. Acting Attorney General Blanche claimed during a press conference announcing the indictment that the SPLC was “manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” The SPLC later said that federal law enforcement knew about and was aided by its paid informant program. (This is also an established tactic that investigators use, going back to fighting Nazis in America after World War II.) In May, a whistleblower report alleged that an “enforcer” for Acting Attorney General Blanche ordered Alabama prosecutors to “rush through” the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, despite concerns about the strength of the case.
All of these attacks fit into a larger pattern of using “antifa” to mobilize federal law enforcement resources to target left-leaning nonprofits and activists, even going so far as pressuring the State Department to designate it as a domestic terrorist group, in line with an executive order from Trump. (For context, “antifa,” which stands for “anti-fascist,” is a loose movement without an organizational structure or detailed ideology.) As Trump’s perceived critics rack up wins in court, at the polls, and on the streets, these attacks will likely escalate.
Dropped Charges for Donors and Allies
Finally, it’s not all about sticks. There also carrots for cronies who participate in the kleptocratic system, including allowing them to act “above the law.” The DOJ and other agencies with enforcement powers have followed this pattern during the Trump administration.
Perhaps most famously, the DOJ, under Blanche’s leadership, moved to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders. These were dangerous individuals who broke into the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Additionally, according to CBS news, Blanche personally ordered prosecutors to strike a deal with former Puerto Rico governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, who had been convicted of corruption, after lobbying by former Trump lawyer Chris Kise.
This fits a broader pattern: Public Citizen’s Banquet of Greed report identified 14 ballroom donors collectively receiving over $50 billion in federal contracts while legal problems against them were diminished or dropped. While we don’t know where the DOJ dropped any investigations or charges as a result of these donations, the media reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its appeal seeking higher penalties against Ripple, whose investors overlap with Trump’s donor base.
Democratic Rep. Mike Levin characterized it plainly: “You write a check, your legal problems disappear.”
Most recently, in May 2026, Blanche was key in establishing the $1.776 billion fund to compensate alleged “victims of weaponization and lawfare.” A federal court blocked it. Facing pressure from Senate Republicans who feared it would derail immigration legislation, Blanche told Congress DOJ was “not moving forward with the fund,” but refused to put that in writing, keeping the door open for a resurrection.
What You Can Do
If you’ve read this far, just know one thing: we didn’t even cover all of the concerning issues, because this article was getting too long!
But all is not lost. Blanche still needs to be confirmed by the Senate to permanently keep his job, and the hearings aren’t scheduled until July 15 and 16.
Liz Oyer, former pardon attorney for the DOJ, has helpfully laid out three things you can do to voice your concerns about Blanche.
Contact the Republican Senate Judiciary members who may or may not send him up for confirmation.
Contact persuadable senators who need to show that they care about fairness and integrity during an election year.
Tell your friends and family about this and how they can act.
Weekly Wins
Score One for Science
The Trump administration’s bid to gut the $368 million Ocean Observatories Initiative has hit a wall, at least for now. After lawmakers in both parties warned that dismantling the deep-sea monitoring network would be unlawful and dangerous for coastal communities, the Senate passed a measure by unanimous consent that would block the government from dismantling the system. Within a day, the National Science Foundation announced an about-face: they would pause the removal of monitoring equipment and redeploy those buoys that had already been pulled. The Trump administration had also tried to cut the program's funds the last two years, but Congress restored the money both times.
Georgia’s Retreat from a 2028 Gerrymander Plan
Georgia Republicans shelved a special-session push to redraw congressional and legislative maps for 2028. They did this after weeks of pressure from Democrats, voting rights groups, and even nervous members of their own caucus. Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns framed the retreat as deference to “pending litigation” and the need for more public input, but GOP leaders were also concerned that a redistricting brawl would increase Democratic turnout. For now, the gerrymander is on ice while lawmakers focus on procedural tweaks to how Georgia counts votes, yet Republicans have left the door wide open to reviving the scheme in a post-election session if the political math looks safer. It’s a reminder that organized public backlash can still force even deeply entrenched statehouses to think twice before making anti-democratic moves.
“Alligator Alcatraz” Finally Emptied
"Alligator Alcatraz" is no more. All detainees have finally been transferred out of the remote immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades that advocates say was dangerous, inhumane, and plagued by medical neglect and extreme heat. Reporting shows this didn’t come out of nowhere: state vendors were quietly told back in May that the billion‑dollar facility would be shut down, with roughly 1,400 people removed and the site “demobilized” once they were gone. It’s a genuine win that organizers and journalists forced into the light.
Court Tosses DOJ’s “Extraordinarily Broad” Demands
A federal judge blocked the DOJ's attempt to drag Minnesota leaders into a grand jury over their refusal to play along with his latest immigration crackdown. In a sharply worded opinion, Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz tossed six subpoenas targeting Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and local officials, calling them “extraordinarily broad” and part of a broader campaign to coerce state and city leaders into helping enforce civil immigration laws.
Federal Judge Halts Trump’s Voter Verification Tool
A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s revamped SAVE database for "verifying" voter eligibility is unlawful and must be taken offline in its current form. In a 75‑page opinion, Judge Araceli Sooknanan found that federal agencies improperly repurposed immigration data to build a de facto citizenship registry for tens of millions of Americans without complying with the Privacy Act or the Social Security Act. The system repeatedly flagged naturalized citizens and Americans born abroad as potential non-citizens, and the court concluded that the government bypassed basic notice‑and‑comment requirements and “knowingly violated the privacy rights of American citizens.” It’s an important win for voting‑rights advocates who argued that the SAVE overhaul risked wrongful voter challenges.
More Links, More Kleptocracy
Build a Protection Racket
Bribes and influence peddling
Trump visits new Air Force One, a luxury gift from Qatar that will soon fly him - WaPo
Olympic organizers working with White House on Trump golf tournament - Politico
Cronyism and favoritism
An Indian billionaire was targeted by Trump. Then he poured money into a start-up secretly backed by Donald J. Trump - ProPublica
ICE removed detainee protections after private outreach from top contractor - WaPo
Trump Plans to Protect Methane-Leaking Stripper Wells. This Billionaire Donor Will Benefit. - ProPublica
Top Interior official met with former clients before intervening to delay wolf release - Public Domain
Sending a signal from the top
Amid mass ICE arrests, Trump pardon recipient Juan Orlando Hernández given special treatment - ProPublica
Trump Administration Shuttered a Criminal Probe Into Fraudster’s Clemency - NYT
Decentralized violence and surveillance
Death rate in ICE immigrant detention centers more than doubles under Trump - Reuters
ICE Protester Says He Was Shackled in Hospital for Days After Agents’ Attack - NYT
A California man’s case highlights gaps in care and oversight at DHS detention centers - NPR
Get Rid of Independent Checks on Power
Executive power grabs
Trump Tries to Outrun Courts by Building Ballroom Fast - WSJ
Senate targets Hegseth’s travel in standoff over apparent Iran school attack, boat strikes - WaPo
GOP opposition that shelved Trump’s ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is much quieter on audit immunity deal - Politico
Budget office redirects $352M in Secret Service funds to White House security - WaPo
‘A Literal Coverup’: What Is the Kennedy Center Hiding Behind Those Tarps? - NYT
Democrats say they were denied access to Delaney Hall detainees - Politico
Trump said no taxpayer money would be spent on the ballroom. A contractor’s invoices show otherwise.- WaPo
Centralizing executive authority
Immigration judges are denying ICE detainees release. Federal judges are stepping in. - Politico
DOJ charges 15 Minnesotans with conspiracy to block ICE, claims antifa ties - WaPo
Memo by Rubio approved detention of immigrant who criticized Trump ally - NYT
Trump, without evidence, blames ‘disgraceful vandalism’ for reflection pool do-over - NOTUS
DHS continues to make workforce decisions for FEMA, lawsuit contends - Federal News Network
Legislators visit facility where Ghislaine Maxwell is held - Politico
How Government Fines of $1 Million+ Are Increasingly Targeting Immigrants - The Marshall Project
Targeting civil society and subnational government
Gavin Newsom says DOJ is targeting him and his wife - Politico
Trump’s DC makeover frenzy bewilders locals and visitors: ‘It’s like we’re under occupation’ - The Guardian
Here’s how a small oil company became a weapon in Trump’s assault on California - Politico
A Diocese Tries to Protect Its 29-Foot Jesus From Trump’s Border Wall - NYT
Scientific integrity and academic freedom
Drive Division
Driving social division
Trump admin seeks to block restoration of climate change, diversity info at historical sites - ABC News
28-Year Women’s Veterans Ceremony Canceled After Military Branches Decline Participation - Military.com
Secret Vetting and Blocked Promotions: Inside Hegseth’s War on Diversity - NYT