1 week Ago
President-elect Trump has chosen Todd Blanche, an attorney who led the legal team that defended the Republican at his hush money criminal trial, to serve as the second-highest ranking Justice Department official. A former federal prosecutor, Blanche has been a key figure on Trump's defense team both in the New York case that ended in a conviction in May, and the federal cases brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. "Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken System of Justice for far too long," Trump said in a statement Thursday announcing his pick.
If confirmed as deputy attorney general by the Republican-led Senate, Blanche would manage the day-to-day operations of the sprawling Justice Department, which Trump has vowed to radically overhaul. The announcement comes a day after the president-elect said he had chosen as attorney general of Florida, a Trump loyalist who once faced a Justice Department sex trafficking investigation that ended in no charges. Trump is appointing two other members of his defense team to high-ranking Justice Department positions: Blanche represented Trump in both the 2020 election interference case in Washington and the Florida case accusing the former president of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
In both cases, the defense team successfully mounted a legal strategy focused heavily on delaying the cases until after the election..
