A Bit Of Wheat Among The Chaff
Trump's Deputy AG nominee is an promising choice
![[Todd Blanche Exiting a press conference outside Manhattan Criminal Courthouse where his client Former President Donald Trump was charged with 34 felony counts - photo by BruceSchaff via Wikipedia]](https://otb.cachefly.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Todd_Blanche_Outside_Manhattan_Criminal_Courthouse_cropped-edited.avif)
In stark contrast to his nomination of the woefully underqualified (and alleged sex pest/predator) Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, President-Elect Trump’s nominee for deputy attorney general is actually… pretty good! As part of announcements about three high-level legal positions within the administration, Trump revealed that his defense attorney, Todd Blanche, will be serving in the position. From CNN:
Trump on Thursday announced that Todd Blanche is his pick for deputy attorney general and Emil Bove, another member of his criminal defense team, to serve as principal associate deputy attorney general. John Sauer, who won the presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court, was chosen for the role of solicitor general.
The choices are reflective of Trump’s dependence on his inner circle of allies – in this case his criminal attorneys – but the three also may be seen as more standard picks for the legal positions compared to his nod for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. As deputy attorney general, Blanche would be tasked with managing the day-to-day functions of the department, while advising the attorney general on policy priorities and other issues.
I don’t know enough about Bove or that position to comment on it. Sauer makes sense as the Solicitor General. While he only argued one case in front of the Supreme Court, he did so successfully. In doing so, he had to win over (or more cynically, provide cover for) the conservative wing of the Court. The ability to do that will be important given the amount of legal push-back Trump’s policies are sure to get. Additionally, looking at his biography, he clerked at both the Federal Appellate level and for Scalia at the Supreme Court. That means he has more than a passing insider understanding of the culture at the Supreme Court.
As far as Todd Blanche goes, I think he has the makings of a good choice for Deputy AG. In fact, if Gaetz’s nomination fails (most likely if the House Ethics Report on him is published or leaked), I would much prefer Blanche to step into the top spot as opposed to someone like Ken Paxton or Andrew Bailey. Here’s why:
In addition to having the usual experience as a Federal Prosecutor, Blanche also has experience doing criminal defense work. This tends to be a rarity for high-level positions in the DoJ; those roles are often filled by people from within the department or former prosecutors working in other areas of the federal government. A quick review of the last few Deputy AGs reveals none of them had any significant defense experience.
This lack of defense experience is unfortunately all too common in both the Department of Justice and in the Judiciary. For example, on the current Supreme Court, only Ketanji Brown Jackson has significant defense experience.
Generally speaking–and thanks in large degree to popular media–Americans tend to have a dim view of defense attorneys. Those feelings tend to be even worse for criminal defense attorneys. Yet our “adversarial” criminal legal system is, theoretically, if not in practice, based on everyone having access to a robust defense. Doing defense work shifts your thinking about the legal system, not to mention the application of state power. Having that perspective in the DoJ is fundamentally a good thing and could lead to more judicious selection of prosecutions.
To be clear, I don’t think any of that informed the decision to nominate Blanche. But I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Quick aside on the deputy AG position: it’s a critical role inside the DoJ and is as much administrative as anything else. It’s the deputy that ensures that stuff gets done. I’ll also note that the deputy AGs played a critical role in preventing Trump from installing Jeffery Clark as AG as part of the plan to overthrow the 2020 election results. Not only did former deputy AG Jeffrey Rosen step in to replace Bill Bar when he chose to step down as AG, but the new deputy AG Richard Donoghue was one of the DoJ leaders to told Trump that they would immediately resign if the President went forward with his plan to install Clark as AG.
Oh good, there is one person that might not stink amongst the mass pile of rotten garbage.
Well, that’s one of Trump’s attorneys who will get paid. Wonder how Giuliani feels about it?
While I agree with your assessment, Matt, this really does make the DOJ quite literally Trump’s personal lawyers.
Okay, at least they’re actually qualified. Serious attorneys and the CVs are decent.
Not more of Trump’s drug-addicted, criminal recipients of rightwing affirmative action or DEI-for-white-men.
@Joe: Bingo. This was exactly my thought. I mean, yay, I guess, that they are qualified. But he’s literally stocking the DOJ with people who have been paid to keep him out of trouble over the past few years.
I’m sure none of the accumulated evidence will go missing. 😐
@Joe:
Oh, completely. In some ways that’s better than having to pretend that wasn’t the case under Bill Barr.
@Not the IT Dept.: @Jen: Have they been paid? I’m guessing Trump hasn’t paid them yet and has forced them to work for him to get paid. Or is that too far a conspiracy thought?
@Scott:
I was being sarcastic. Him getting the job is the payment. And again, Giuliani, who’s losing everything he’s not actually wearing at the moment, is probably wondering how he can get a piece of that.
@Scott: Blanche et al. got paid via the $5 and $10 donations from the rubes to the Trump Grift, er, Legal Defense Fund. I hope hope hope Uncle Joe pardons Hunter on the way out the door. Biden should ask himself, “what would Trump do?” and then do it.
I’d prefer his corrupt appointments be incompetent.
I take zero comfort in Matt Gaetz having a competent second in charge who will be able to execute the corrupt plans that Gaetz’ master is cooking up.
@mistermix:
FWIW–and I am probably wrong on this one–I think that there’s a better than 50/50 chance that Blanche understands the law enough to gum up the works OR will pull a Barr and leave rather than expose himself to criminal liability.
On the flip side, I unfortunately think, like Barr, Blanche will also know how to go up to the line on way too many issues.
Has any of his criminal defense work been involved with helping normal people being victimized by the police state, or has it all been work to make billionaires legally uncountable?
@Stormy Dragon:
Fair question… definitely white collar/white shoe from what I can tell. And at the same time, they still hit many of the same problems.
Ok, so gentle critique here: from a moral stand point, I totally get this. There’s a reason that I don’t use “criminal justice” as a phrase–because the focus of the system isn’t justice.
AND… this is the uncomfortable point, I don’t like dealing with “victimization” any more because that takes us into a moral framework of “who deserves/doesn’t deserve” defense. One of the journeys I’ve been on is moving beyond advocating for the people who are “easy” to defend. It’s similar with the necessity to talk about what do we do with people convicted of “violent” crimes.
Would I prefer that Blanche had public defender experience? SURE!
But ANY defense experience is a step forward.
@Matt Bernius:
Everyone deserves a defense, but if we’re going to declare Blanche “the wheat among the chaff”, his specific motivations and his reasons for choosing the specific people he defends is very relevant. There’s a big difference between a public defender and a high price corporate attorney.
Has he even done any significant pro bono work?
Blanche, Bove, and Sauer were all Trump’s personal attorney’s. Suppose these appointments are in lieu of pay?
ETA: Smart spell check turned “Bove” into “above” while I wasn’t looking. “We’re Microsoft, we’re smarter than ewe are.”
@Stormy Dragon:
I think we’ve hit the agree to disagree stage of the conversation. Again, I see and understand your point. I’m just approaching it from a different perspective.
To your question, the only mention I could find of Blanche and pro-bono was a case where he oversaw a pro-bono team: https://www.cadwalader.com/cadwalader-cares-csr-pro-bono-update/index.php?nid=6&eid=27
That said, I personally don’t see this as inherently disqualifying. For example, I would love to see someone like Ken White get the chance to influence DoJ (I don’t think Popehat would be that enthused to do it… at least not at this moment in his live). I know he has help people find pro-bono assistance, but I don’t know how much of that he’s actually done. And White, being at a white shoe lawfirm, typical clients are very wealthy.
I don’t know Blanche’s commitments in the same way I think I know White/PopeHat’s. But I’m not going to immediately say all Blanche cares about is money or power just because of his defense of Trump (or his accepting this position).
My own personal perspective also informs this. I have been lucky enough to work at two Civic Tech organizations that pay very well (when compared to other nonprofits). I appreciate the work that has allowed me to do. And whenever I consider my next career steps, I take into consideration what my future salary might be. I’m not at a point where I cannot afford to take a major salary cut to continue to do “good work.” My limited amount of “pro-bono” mentoring work isn’t focused on people in extreme need.
The reality for me is that if I have to choose between working for Amazon or going to a nonprofit that can’t meet my salary needs, I will choose the former every day and twice on Sundays.
I hope that helps inform my approach to evaluating these types of questions. To be clear, I don’t think that negates your critique at all. We’re just bringing different lenses to a set of common facts.
@gVOR10:
Then they demonstrate that Blanche, Bove, and Sauer don’t care about money–at least in the short term. Because they and their firms invested way more in those cases than they are getting financial restitution for. And someone’s got to pay the associates and staff who did all of the leg work.
@Stormy Dragon:
My title should not be interpreted as saying that Blanche is “high-quality” wheat. I only think there’s some actual (and intentional) substance in this appointment, versus Gaetz or Hegseferdigerd, and Blanche could surprise us.
If it helps, imagine the title was: “A bit of corn/peanut in the shit”– i.e. marginally more nutritional value even after passing through the system, but on first glance I’m not touching it beyond writing a post about it.
@Matt Bernius: My own take is to equate “some wheat among the chaff” and “better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.” But maybe that will prove to be too cynical.
Someday.
@gVOR10:
Generally I agree, however this becomes problematic when the incompetents run National Intelligence or DHHS for example.
@Jen:
Unless any of the current crop have had the nous/paranoia to squirrel away evidence copies in secure storage.
The problem is, the “normality expectation” and “proceduralism”of people in general and lawyers in particular.
Pity the current US bureaucracy probably has an insufficient number of historians in key positions. We perhaps tend to have more of a sense about how rapidly sh!t can go radically sideways.