The Republican National Convention speaker list is causing controversy for one name on it: Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Blanche appears prominently on a leaked line-up published by Axios, raising questions about whether the nation’s top law enforcement official is violating federal restrictions on partisan political activity.
As attorney general, appearing at a partisan event that is being billed by the Republican National Committee as “Trump-a-palooza” is a potential violation of the Hatch Act of 1939, which says that federal executive branch employees are prohibited from using their job to influence elections.
The inclusion of Blanche was called out Saturday night by former Obama staffer Christopher Hale.
“The United States Attorney General is speaking at a national partisan political convention,” he noted on X, reposting the speaker list.
The RNC later confirmed the speaker line-up was accurate, posting a press release to their website confirming the names.
“He will always be the Presidents lawyer’s so let’s just start calling him that,” one X user observed in reply to Hale.
Before being appointed as attorney general, Blanche had been Trump’s personal attorney for many years.
Blanche has already run afoul of legal experts who say his appearance in August stumping for a Trump-backed Republican candidate in New York’s race for governor also potentially violated Hatch.
Former US attorney Joyce Vance said she was “deeply disgusted” by his actions in August, pointing out the attorney general is “on the clock 24/7″ and so cannot avoid Hatch by stumping for Republicans on his own time.
“Instead of doing justice, he’s been doing the president’s political bidding. A violation of the Hatch Act, if anyone believes the Attorney General should follow the law,” she wrote in her Substack.
The White House and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced the unusual midterm convention in June. The two-day event will take place in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10 and is intended to place the 80-year-old president—and his political agenda—front and center ahead of November’s elections.
It is a move designed to energize the MAGA base and try to draw out Trump supporters for down-ticket races in November.
Republicans are facing a tough road to retaining the House and Senate in November, with a slew of tighter-than-usual Senate races—including in Texas—and voter frustration with the state of the economy and Trump’s handling of it.
