Next to his ultimate boss, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is proving at age 51 to be ever willing to subvert justice to his advantage.
Colleagues who spoke to The Daily Beast have trouble making sense of it.
They recall the Colorado native of earlier years as affable, hardworking, and level-headed during a two-decade ascent from night student at Brooklyn Law School to federal prosecutor in Manhattan. Blanche’s rise then seemed to dip and it plateaued until he became Donald Trump’s personal lawyer between the president’s two terms. He has essentially continued in that capacity, representing the re-elected Trump rather than the American people, first as deputy attorney general and now as acting head of the U.S. Department of Justice.
At his first press briefing after Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired, Blanche downplayed any desire to permanently take her place.
“I did not ask for this job,” he said. “I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime, and if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and I go back to being the [Deputy Attorney General], that’s an honor.”
He added a declaration of fealty such as Trump often recounts receiving in apocryphal-sounding tales.
“If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.’”
In fact, Blanche seems ready to do almost anything to formally secure the top spot. One of his recent court filings suggests he is as much under Trump’s spell as another famous Brooklyn Law School grad, the late Bruce Cutler, was with the gangster John Gotti. And Blanche’s onetime admirers now can only wonder if he will reach a moral and ethical limit.
“I kept hoping there was a red line he wouldn’t cross,” a longtime friend told the Daily Beast.
What should have been a prohibitive hurdle for Blanche came earlier this month after President Trump reportedly pushed a stack of news clippings across the Resolute Desk towards him. The hoarder-in-chief of grievances and grudges had affixed atop the papers a yellow sticky note bearing a single word scrawled in Sharpie.
“TREASON”
Blanche himself turned actual traitor to the U.S. Constitution he had sworn to defend against all enemies. He announced with a post on X his intention to essentially ignore the First Amendment.
“Prosecuting leakers who share our nation’s secrets with reporters, in turn risking our national security and the lives of our soldiers, is a priority for this administration,” he wrote. “Any witness, whether a reporter or otherwise, who has information about these criminals should not be surprised if they receive a subpoena about the illegal leaking of classified material.”
A DOJ spokesperson defended the move in a statement to the Daily Beast, saying: “In all circumstances, the Department of Justice follows the facts and applies the law to identify those committing crimes against the United States. These subpoenas are not targeting reporters, but rather the sharing of classified material that jeopardizes national security and the safety of American soldiers.”
Given the widespread dislike of reporters, some of Blanche’s erstwhile admirers took the move to be just what might be expected for Blanche to get along in MAGA world. What really surprised them was the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey for supposedly threatening the president by posting on Instagram a photo of seashells on a beach configured into “86 47.”
As the 45th president, Trump had voiced no concern when his supporters distributed “86 46” bumper stickers during his 2024 campaign against Joe Biden, the 46th president. Nobody was heard to suggest at the time that the term constituted any threat at all. The expression to “86” somebody has long been used to describe refusing service to a customer or kicking a disruptive visitor out of a bar. It is widely thought to have started during Prohibition at Chumley’s, a bar at 86 Bedford Street in New York, where unruly patrons who were ejected were said to be “86’d.”
The term was not deemed a threat until Trump, as the 47th president, contended that “86” is a “mob term” meaning, “Kill him.” And it just so happened that the person supposedly making this imaginary threat was Comey, a man Trump has continued to despise as a supposed instigator of the “Russia hoax” investigation into possible Kremlin interference in the 2016 election.
Last year, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsay Halligan sought to indict Comey for the supposed seashell threat, but a federal judge ruled that she had been unlawfully appointed to the position. Attorney General Pam Bondi might still have a job if she had immediately revived the case. But perhaps she suffered from a sudden case of scruples.
Blanche was not about to make the same mistake. A North Carolina grand jury handed down the result of his efforts on April 28:
“On or about May 15, 2025, in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the defendant, JAMES BRIEN COMEY JR, did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States, in that he publicly posted a photograph on the internet social media site Instagram which depicted seashells arranged in a pattern making out ’86 47′, which a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States.“
On learning of the indictment brought against Comey, a former fellow Manhattan prosecutor noted that the Blanche of earlier years would have just laughed at it.
“How did he go from laughing to bringing?” the former prosecutor asked.
The question is echoed by people in the legal world who once counted Blanche as one of the very good guys.
“What the hell happened to Todd?”
The three former colleagues, all asking not to be named, used the same word to describe their current feelings regarding Blanche.
“Disappointed.”
Blanche seems to have been universally well-liked and respected as he worked his way through Brooklyn Law School. He was seemingly tireless as he took courses at night and worked a day job at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan and in Brooklyn while raising a young family.
“Word got out about how good he was, and everybody else wanted to use him in their trials,” a former federal prosecutor recalls. “He was impressive…a relentlessly good-natured guy.”
As a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Blanche was known for his sound judgment and quick wit. He is the son of a Canadian hockey coach and was scrappier than the Ivy League types. He had become head of the violent crimes unit when he departed for private practice after eight years, in 2014.
Blanche seemed set when he signed on with one of the country’s top law firms, WilmerHale. He seems to have been just as well-liked and held in equal esteem as he was as a prosecutor. But for reasons the Daily Beast has been unable to determine, he does not appear to have made partner.
“It’s obviously a career jolt,” a New York legal eminence of broad experience told the Daily Beast. “He was on a really upward trajectory.”
Most such negative decisions involving prospective partners who are well-liked and skilled generally involve money-making potential. But the firm might not have been so quick to let him go if he were a Harvard or Yale man rather than a night school guy. Class is a bigger factor in American life than we often acknowledge.
“The obvious question is what’s next?” the eminence said.
Blanche took half a step down as he joined slightly less prominent Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. He could have ended up as just another white-shoe lawyer prospering in cushy obscurity.
Then came the kind of big case that is irresistible for a lawyer, be he out of night school or the Ivy League: representing a former president.
Only the former president was Trump. And the case involved hush money paid to a porn star.
Blanche’s firm asked him to either drop his new client or resign. He stuck with Trump, and three fellow attorneys who know him later expressed their concern to the Daily Beast.
“The danger is that [Trump] can convince you to go against your better judgment,” one lawyer said.
A former Trump attorney said of his one-time client, “He thinks everyone loves him and he makes everybody miserable.”
The lawyer added simply, “He cares for nobody but himself…He’s a bad guy.”
Blanche went all in with Trump, moving his family to Florida.
As it happened, Blanche was joined on the defense team by Emil Bove, a former Southern District prosecutor who was as widely disliked as Blanche was liked.
“Universally despised and universally beloved,” a former prosecutor told the Daily Beast.
As they stood with their client in a Manhattan courtroom, Blanche and Bove seemed as different as light and darkness. But they appeared to bond as they both demonstrated the loyalty to Trump that he demands, even though he is himself loyal to nobody.
Trump did not seem to blame them when the hush money case ended in a conviction. Their gender might have been a factor. Trump had taunted and mocked the woman who represented him when New York State Attorney General Leticia James brought a civil fraud case against him.
“Hey, loser. Loser,” Trump is said to have called out to the extremely able Yale Law graduate Susan Necheles after he was hit with a $464 million judgement.
Blanche also represented Trump in two other big cases: one for allegedly retaining classified documents, the other for allegedly seeking to interfere with the 2020 election. The cases were dropped after Trump won a second term. The Supreme Court had placed a sitting president beyond the reach of prosecutors.
Bove became all the more despised after he helped the vindictive Trump Justice Department identify FBI agents who had investigated those who participated in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. Never mind that Bove had himself supervised some of those very same cases.
“He signed my search warrants,” a former FBI agent told the Daily Beast.
Bove has since been named a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals. He has been mentioned as a possibility for the Supreme Court if a seat becomes open while Trump is in office.
Blanche continued his ascent as Trump’s deputy attorney general. He told a former New York colleague that although he was technically under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, he largely ran the DOJ’s day-to-day operations.
But Bondi had complicated things when she told the press that she had an Epstein client list on her desk. Newly appointed FBI Director Kash Patel then announced that there was no client list. Congress ultimately passed legislation requiring the release of the Epstein files.
Blanche was tasked with complying as much as was required, or maybe a little less. One thing that came to light was a book that Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, had assembled for his 50th birthday. A racy page appeared to have been submitted by Trump.
Maxwell was being held in a Florida medium security federal prison, having been convicted by a jury of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years. Blanche flew there to interview Maxwell for nine hours over two days in a nearby federal prosecutor’s office. He began the first session by saying that her attorney had reached out to him “and said that you wanted to speak with somebody from the government about, not only your case, but about everything that’s been in the media.”
Maxwell replied that she had indeed told her lawyers “that I would be very keen to talk to anyone, because no one from the government at any time, since the inception of the case, dating back to the early 2000s, has ever spoken to me.”
Blanche let this go unchallenged, even though Maxwell had sought to hide in the house when FBI agents tracked her to New Hampshire in July of 2020 and had declined numerous opportunities to offer her side. She had chosen not to testify on her own behalf during her trial.
Blanche also did not challenge Maxwell when she now told him she had never known any women of any age to have endured anything “inappropriate” at Epstein’s hands.
“I never saw a tear,” Maxwell told Blanche. “I never saw any of that.”
Afterwards, the still unrepentant Maxwell was transferred to a minimum security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, despite a longstanding DOJ policy barring sex offenders from such relatively lax facilities. Former Bryan nurse Noella Turnage told the Daily Beast that she was fired after she complained that Maxwell was receiving preferential treatment.
After Bondi was fired, Blanche just kept doing what might be expected of a guy who served under Trump and did not want to follow her out the door.
Then came the Comey indictment.
“Todd could make a choice,” a longtime fellow prosecutor told the Daily Beast. “‘No, we can’t f---ing prosecute Comey. This would be the most ridiculous indictment in the history of the world.’ Or ‘Yes, that’s what you want, President. I’m your attorney general. I do whatever the f--- you want.’“
Blanche managed to make it even more ridiculous by telling the press that the indictment was the result of an 11-month investigation.
“Of course, the seashells are part of that case,” Blanche allowed. “[But] you prove intent with witnesses; you prove intent with document…a body of evidence.”
Blanche has also launched a forward-to-the-past investigation into the “deep state” of Trump foes going back decades. He swore in the Reagan-era District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova to run that improbable probe. DiGenova is a longtime election denier and a Trump favorite. A prime target is former CIA Director John Brennan, who is near the top of Trump’s enemies list.
But what should disturb anybody who retains any respect for the law is a court filing that Blanche submitted after the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Trump argued that the attack at the Washington Hilton never would have happened if the event had been held in a more secure facility such as the new 90,000-square foot ballroom he is desperate to build at the White House.
The project had been put on hold after the National Trust for Historic Preservation went to court, contending that Trump had torn down the East Wing without bothering to secure the required congressional approval. Blanche replied with a court filing that reads remarkably like one of Trump’s more unhinged posts on Truth Social.
“If any other President had the ability, foresight, or talents necessary to build this ballroom, which will be one of the greatest, safest, and most secure structures of its kind anywhere in the World, there would never have been a lawsuit,” it read in part. “But, because it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t, especially those who assume the Office of President, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed…It’s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
The filing was dated April 27, 2026 and signed by the most dangerous man in America, who needs only to lose a single qualifying adjective to formally become number one at what seems to be the cost of his soul.
“Respectfully submitted,
TODD BLANCHE
Acting Attorney General.”
Meanwhile, Blanche is reportedly angling for a way to settle a $10 billion lawsuit brought by Trump, his sons, and the family business against the Internal Revenue Service for allegedly leaking their tax returns.
The result could be a truly HUGE windfall.
