Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche chastised reporters Tuesday for questioning President Trump’s pursuit of prosecutions against political opponents, saying the media tolerated four years of Justice Department “weaponization” against Mr. Trump.
In his first public remarks since being tapped as head of the Justice Department, replacing the fired Pam Bondi, Mr. Blanche said he doesn’t feel any pressure from Mr. Trump to go after the president’s opponents.
But he challenged the reporter who suggested it.
“When we talk about ending weaponization, as if that’s a bad thing for us to do,” Mr. Blanche said. “People in this room, OK, people in this room for four years — some of you, the same people — sat here with the last administration when you saw the weaponization of this department, the likes of which had never been seen in history.”
He said that included two federal indictments of Mr. Trump, as well as the DOJ assisting local prosecutors in Georgia and New York to pursue their own indictments.
Mr. Blanche, who was a defense lawyer for Mr. Trump before being tapped as deputy attorney general, said Mr. Trump is on firm footing to call for prosecutions.
“That is his right, and indeed it is his duty to do that,” he said.
Mr. Blanche declined to speculate on why the president fired Ms. Bondi last week.
“Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I’m the acting attorney general except for President Trump,” he said.
He declined to say when Ms. Bondi’s relationship with the department would be fully severed, but said he is the acting head right now.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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