Sen. Chuck Grassley
Addressing the Senate Judiciary Committee he chairs Wednesday, Chuck Grassley had glowing endorsements of Todd Blanche, who is seeking confirmation as U.S. attorney general. “Mr. Blanche, you should take pride in delivering the law and order promise the American people voted for in 2024,” Iowa’s senior senator said of Donald Trump’s former personal criminal defense lawyer, now acting attorney general.
If you’ve followed Blanche’s record of sidestepping rules and protocols and running personal interference for Trump, you already know why such a confirmation could be a disaster for democracy. The Justice Department, like justice itself, is meant to be blind.
Yet while every president’s tax returns are audited annually, Blanche granted Trump immunity from an I.R.S. audit without authority to. He is accused of using the Justice Department to reward the President’s allies and punish his critics, among those New York Attorney Gen. Leticia James, former FBI Director James Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff. And while most prison inmates don’t get visits from Justice Department higher-ups, Blanche visited Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislane Maxwell. Two days later, she was moved to a minimum security camp.
Even sexual assault survivors are speaking against him.
But Iowa’s senior senator made no references to any of that, focusing instead on numbers: 6,300-plus fentanyl arrests since last January under Blanche’s leadership; a 468,000 reduction in immigration case logs; FBI arrests of 2,900 child predators and human traffickers. And the senator lashed out at Blanche’s detractors.
“But at the hearing today, I don’t expect that my Democratic colleagues will talk about these successes,” quipped Grassley, going on to accuse “the Democrats, their media allies, and the activist networks” of crusading against Blanche’s nomination.
If so, such a crusade may be warranted. Grassley’s glowing assessment could hardly have differed more from those of 1,200 former and current Justice Department employees who signed a letter the week before urging the committee to reject Blanche.
They also had numbers to share, primarily of the 16,000 employees they said have left the department under his temporary tenure. Those include FBI agents, field analysts and more than a quarter of the attorneys. The letter accused Blanche of firing or orchestrating the purges of hundreds in retaliation for having worked on cases Trump didn’t like or for being related to Trump’s foes. Some attorneys, they wrote, were let go for holding due-process immigration hearings or declining to launch vindictive prosecutions, or refusing to lie in court.
“Offices that enforced tax laws, ensured access to justice, prosecuted drug trafficking, and reduced community violence were eliminated entirely…,” the letter said. “FBI, DEA, and ATF agents have been diverted from their investigations into terrorism, drug trafficking, and organized crime so they could patrol the streets of Washington, D.C.”
Todd Blanche
If that depiction of the nominee doesn’t inspire confidence, consider a U.S. District judge’s blistering July 13 ruling in tossing out Trump’s lawsuit against the I.R.S., in which Blanche paid a part. Filed past the statute of limitations and naming a contractor who wasn’t even an I.R.S. employee, Trump sought $10 billion from taxpayers, alleging the I.R.S. hadn’t done enough to prevent the leak of his tax information to the media.
As acting Justice Department head, Blanche had helped orchestrate the terms of a settlement to include a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to be paid by taxpayers to some in his base - including possibly hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters whom the President later pardoned for storming the Capitol at his behest.
Miami-based Judge Kathleen Williams called that an attempt to use the court “to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President, and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to address grievances not defined in the law.”
She wrote, “This action was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute.”
If any of that bothers Grassley, he hasn’t said so. In May, he defended the $1.8 billion fund for “victims of lawfare and weaponization” and told reporters in Trump’s defense, “There’s a unanimous understanding that the federal government shouldn’t be weaponized against… your political enemies, whether they’re Republican or Democrat.”
Yet he’s never spoken of Trump’s pursuit of his opponents. Grassley also told reporters, “Don’t forget that this is subject to congressional oversight.”
Good point. So where has that oversight been?
At the hearing, Grassley said, “As sure as sunrise, today, some of my Democratic colleagues will tell us that Mr. Blanche is a uniquely terrible nominee. I’d urge them to remember the boy who cried wolf, and to take a long look in the mirror before lecturing anyone about partisanship at the Justice Department.”
Just to be clear, these questions about Blanche are not about partisanship. They’re about what looks like corruption, preferential treatment for those who do the president’s bidding, and vindictiveness against those who challenge his dictates. Grassley should be one of the gatekeepers against this.
Todd Blanche’s confirmation vote is scheduled for July 30. Among those opposing his confirmation is a Jeffrey Epstein survivor named Annie Farmer, who was among a group of victims to meet with Blanche after he was pressed to by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. Under Blanche, the Justice Department had publicly released some of their identities, pictures and even addresses after withholding Epstein files. The victims had had repeatedly requested a meeting with him but said they never heard back.
Farmer said the meeting confirmed why he shouldn’t be attorney general. “I found him abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors,” she said.
Ironic, isn’t it, the difference between what Trump and Blanche thought he was entitled to after his tax information was leaked, while these victims couldn’ even get a meeting with the acting attorney general after theirs was. But Maxwell did.
Some of us have heard enough to believe that if Blanche is attorney general, Trump will get carte blanch to do what he pleases, regardless of what the courts, the Congress and the people say. Please, Sen. Grassley, do the right thing, be the guardrail you were elected to be, and vote against his confirmation. And encourage your colleagues to do the same. That would show real congressional oversight.
I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative. Click below for the full roster.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.