![[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://outsidethebeltway.com/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.
