Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche snapped when asked a simple question about his controversial prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey.
Blanche, who has been described as “auditioning” for the full-time AG role, took offense to that description during a live appearance on CBS Mornings.
The network’s chief Washington correspondent, Major Garrett, asked him on Wednesday, “Critics of you and this administration, Mr. Blanche, have suggested this is an audition to become the nominee to be attorney general. Is it?”
Blanche fired back without hesitation: “I don’t even know what that means. We work hard every single day. The Department of Justice returns over 100 indictments across this country every single day, making this country safe. And so this narrative, this idea out there, that somehow I’m auditioning—I’ve worked with President Trump for many, many years. I don’t audition for this job. I’ve been the Deputy Attorney General for over a year. OK, this is not an audition.”
Blanche has led the Justice Department since Pam Bondi was fired on April 2. Multiple reports say she was axed in part because Trump grew frustrated with her lack of aggressiveness in pursuing criminal charges against his political enemies.
Just three weeks into his “acting” role, Blanche has now indicted Trump’s longtime foe, James Comey, over an Instagram post he shared last spring of seashells on a North Carolina beach.
The shell formation, arranged in a pattern making the numbers “86 47,″ has Comey staring down a pair of charges claiming he threatened the life of Trump. His indictment alleges that the seashells could be interpreted as a “serious expression of an intent to do harm” to the president given that is “86″ is slang for kill, remove, or discard and “47” could refer to the 47th U.S. President, Donald Trump.
At least one former federal prosecutor has slammed the charges against Comey, who was the FBI director at the beginning of Trump’s first term, as “the worst case DOJ has filed in my lifetime.”
Blanche claims that the prosecution of Comey is solely the work of the DOJ and that no external pressure was put on him from Trump or his White House goons. He had a strong denial ready when asked on Wednesday if he was doing Trump’s bidding.
“Of course not, absolutely, positively, not,” Blanche said. “And there’s no suggestion that that’s the case that happened, and the fact that we’re doing our work, this is not something that just happened the past couple of weeks. This is something that has been investigated for nearly a year now, and the results of that investigation is is a grand jury returns an indictment.”
Comey, 65, is not so sure of that. A previous indictment against him—alleging that he made false statements and obstructed justice regarding his 2020 testimony—was dismissed by a federal judge in November.
“Well, they’re back,” he said in a video statement on Tuesday. “This time, about a picture of sea shells on a North Carolina beach a year ago. And this won’t be the end of it, but nothing has changed with me.”
He added, “I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary.”
