The entire Trump administration is worried about being prosecuted for unspecified offenses if Democrats take back the White House in 2028.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed these fears to the audience at one of the nation’s largest gatherings of right-wing figures and influencers.
“Even in this administration, everybody’s afraid that the next administration, if we don’t win, we’re going to all be investigated and indicted,” Blanche said Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “And why are they afraid? Because that’s exactly what happened during the last administration.”
“All of Trump’s Cabinet, everybody that worked at the White House… had to go to the grand jury,” continued Blanche, who served as Trump’s personal attorney before taking over the number two spot at the Department of Justice.
He didn’t elaborate on what he meant by “go to the grand jury,” or give any examples of officials who have been targeted.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
In a grand jury proceeding, the prosecution can call witnesses, but there’s no defendant, defense attorney, or judge present. That would mean any officials appearing before a grand jury would have been called as witnesses, not as the subject of an investigation.
None of Trump’s Cabinet from his first term was the subject of criminal investigations, but the specter of prison did help convince some of the president’s allies to turn on him when he was prosecuted in Georgia for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Four co-defendants in the Georgia case—including campaign lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesbro—took plea deals and agreed to testify against the other defendants to avoid jail time, while Trump and two others pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors dropped the case in 2025 after Trump won re-election on the grounds that it wasn’t “realistic” to try to prosecute a sitting president.
Also during the Biden administration, two Trump associates, MAGA strategist Steve Bannon and trade adviser Peter Navarro, served several months in prison for refusing to respond to congressional subpoenas.
Other associates—such as attorney Michael Cohen, former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, and longtime Trump associate Roger Stone— were convicted of various crimes during Trump’s first term in office.
Cohen later implicated Trump in his 2024 New York criminal trial over hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, but avoided any jail time thanks to his re-election victory.
After he returned to office in January 2025, he instructed the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
Blanche’s deputies oversee a “weaponization” task force that was formed for that express purpose.
The deputy attorney general told CPAC he had also purged the DOJ of more than 200 attorneys who worked on the criminal investigations into Trump.
In addition to the state prosecutions, special prosecutor Jack Smith brought two criminal cases against Trump, accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and retaining classified records.
“There is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions,” Blanche bragged.
Trump’s allies don’t appear to be safe from scrutiny even with the current administration in charge.
Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her de facto chief of staff Corey Lewandowski are facing scrutiny over warehouse contracts, a no-bid $220 million ad campaign, and plans to purchase luxury jets for the department.
