Recently confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche refused Sunday to take a pledge to lead the Department of Justice independently of political pressures by President Donald Trump and his administration.
In one of his first media interviews since his Aug. 8 confirmation by the Senate, Blanche told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker he doesn’t need to worry about Trump pushing him to cross an ethical or legal line.
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“As we just heard in your address to the Justice Department staff this week, you said you and the DOJ will, ‘uphold the law without fear or favor.’ You, of course, used to be President Trump’s former personal defense attorney. Can you pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House?” Welker asked the attorney general.
“Well, there’s a big difference between saying, ‘We will always do our job and investigate any case’ and ‘act independently of the White House.’ No, I’m not going to pledge that. And no attorney general should ever pledge that,” Blanche said. He then argued that, if he were to pledge that, then it would mean “if President Trump says, ‘I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country,’ which is what he has said, what you’re saying to me is I should say, ‘No, sir, I’m not going to do it.’”
“So I will act with integrity,” Blanche continued. “Our prosecutors will act with integrity. We will prosecute without fear or any sort of favor. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. And that’s what every Department of Justice should do.”
Welker than asked, “Well, I guess, big picture: If the president asks you to do something that you feel crosses an ethical or legal line, would you do it?”
“The president will never ask me to do something unethical … or illegal. He never has. He never will,” Blanche, who personally represented Trump in court during former President Joe Biden’s administration, replied. “And no, I swore to the Constitution of the United States like every cabinet secretary has done and like every attorney general before me has done.”
“And so, this narrative that’s mostly pushed by the left and pushed by the media that the president’s going to pull me aside and ask me to do something illegal is completely a false narrative, not true, will not happen, and hasn’t happened,” Blanche continued.
The Senate confirmed Blanche as the 88th attorney general of the United States after overcoming two initial holdouts: Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who didn’t commit to voting for his confirmation until the Department of Justice assured them that their concerns over potential IRS protections for the Trump family and the anti-weaponization fund’s status had been resolved.
Responding to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment, the Department of Justice referred to a Sunday social media post by its director of public affairs, Emily Covington.
“DOJ is part of the executive branch,” Covington wrote in response to American political commentator Molly Jong-Fast. “Are you suggesting that the focus of the Department should not align with the policy goals of the President, who was elected by the American people? Elected because the people voted for the priorities of that President.”
(DCNF)
