Todd Blanche
Attorney General
About
Todd Wallace Blanche (born August 6, 1974, Denver, CO) is an American attorney who has served as Acting U.S. Attorney General since April 2026 after Trump fired Pam Bondi. He previously served as Deputy Attorney General from March 2025. Blanche spent over 15 years at the DOJ, including as an AUSA and supervisor at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. He later joined Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft as partner. He became Trump's lead criminal defense attorney in 2023-24, representing him in the Manhattan hush-money trial (where Trump was convicted of 34 felonies), the classified documents case, and the January 6 federal conspiracy case. He is described by insiders as one of Trump's most trusted legal advisors, their bond forged, as one source put it, 'like being in a foxhole during a battle.' He was previously a registered Democrat before switching to Republican in 2024. Trump also appointed him acting Librarian of Congress in May 2025, an appointment disputed by Congress as requiring Senate confirmation.
Donations & financial influence
| Category | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total raised (career) | N/A (appointed) | |
| Corporate total | N/A | |
| AIPAC / pro-Israel | N/A | |
| Oil & gas / fossil | N/A | |
| Pharma / healthcare | N/A | |
| Defense | N/A | |
| Wall Street / finance | N/A | |
| Big Tech | N/A |
Controversies & conflicts of interest
- Oversaw the removal of swaths of DOJ and FBI career officials who had worked on January 6 or Trump-related cases, a systematic purge of institutional independence.
- Fired Liz Oyer, the DOJ pardon attorney, after she refused his request to restore actor Mel Gibson's gun rights, a decision career officials called an improper use of the pardon process.
- Fired the acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation after he truthfully conceded in court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man, had been wrongly deported.
- Conducted a private interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, drawing bipartisan outrage. Rep. Thomas Massie later threatened Blanche with criminal liability under the Epstein Files Transparency Act if remaining files were not released within 30 days.
- Announced a DOJ leak investigation after U.S. intelligence reports contradicted Trump's claim that Venezuela directed the Tren de Aragua gang, widely seen as retaliatory against intelligence officials.
- Proposed merging the DEA with the ATF, a major structural reorganization announced with no public consultation or congressional briefing.
- Publicly attacked prior Trump prosecutions from inside the DOJ, adopting MAGA political framing rather than maintaining institutional neutrality expected of senior DOJ leadership.