There are career trajectories and there are career trajectories where a private attorney defends the former president on 34 felony counts, the former president becomes president again, the attorney becomes the acting Attorney General, and the attorney is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee seeking confirmation as the permanent Attorney General, and Todd Blanche’s trajectory is the second kind, which the Senate Judiciary Committee is in the process of evaluating with the specific energy of a committee that knows exactly how Blanche got the job he is trying to keep.
Blanche served as one of Trump’s lead defense attorneys in the New York hush money trial, in which Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts in May 2024, which made Blanche the attorney who defended a client convicted on 34 felony counts and was subsequently appointed acting Attorney General by that client when that client became president, which is an unusual sequence of events in the American legal system. Blanche is now the acting AG seeking Senate confirmation as the permanent AG, which requires the same senators who confirmed his appointment to evaluate whether his performance justifies permanence, in a hearing that Fox News’s quiz confirms sparked criticism this week.
The criticism of the confirmation hearing, per the Fox News quiz framing, involved senators asking Blanche about the scope of the Justice Department’s independence from the White House under his tenure, which is the question that all AGs receive and which Blanche’s tenure has produced specific examples for, including the DOJ’s investigations of oil companies for not lowering gas prices sufficiently, the prosecution of Hannah Dugan for helping an immigrant escape through a courthouse hallway, and the letter to all 50 state attorneys general encouraging them to investigate oil companies under state antitrust laws, which is the same oil companies the federal DOJ is also investigating.
He became acting AG specifically because his client became president after being convicted of 34 felony counts. He is now seeking permanent status in the position. The 34 felony counts are still on the record, having not been vacated, expunged, or otherwise resolved. The confirmation hearing produced criticism. The question of independence was asked.
When the attorney who defended the president on 34 felony counts is now the attorney general seeking permanent appointment by the same president, what exactly does independence mean?
Sources
Fox News: Fox News Digital News Quiz July 17, 2026
HuffPost: Todd Blanche Was Asked If Donald Trump Is His ‘Friend.’ His Response Was Somehow Worse
Raw Story: ‘Oops!’ Todd Blanche’s ‘freudian slip of the year’ sends internet into frenzy
