Blanche also represented Trump in two criminal cases. One was in Florida, where he was prosecuted on charges of improperly keeping classified documents after he left the White House and then lying to investigators about it.
That case was eventually dismissed by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who found that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was illegal.
One was the election tampering case, which Smith brought to Trump in Washington. That case and the Justice Department’s appeal of Cannon’s decision were dropped after Trump was reelected.
Bondi told X that Blanche was “amazing” and that he would work with her directly on the phone.
Mimi Rocah, who worked with Blanche in the Southern District of New York, was initially optimistic about her performance as deputy attorney general, saying in 2024 she “believes in the vision of the Department of Justice to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.”
He has no hope. Rocah told NBC News on Thursday that Blanche “has shown in her role as deputy AG that she is willing to work as a lawyer for Donald Trump rather than a chief justice who protects her staff, seeks justice and tries to comply with the law.”
“I don’t expect anything different from him in this high role,” he added.
Stacey Young, a former Justice Department official who founded the group Justice Connection, which seeks to highlight the Trump administration’s reforms at the Justice Department, said Blanche “never stopped seeing herself as Donald Trump’s lawyer” and that she used her position to “illegally fire employees, insult the wrongdoers and attack judges.”
“Many times he has shown that his leading star is loyal to the president, he does not support the law,” said Young.
Like Bondi, Blanche has been involved in a public battle over the Justice Department’s handling of its review of the case against Jeffrey Epstein, the politically connected judge who died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
After some of Trump’s supporters accused the Justice Department of covering up for Epstein by announcing in July that it would not prosecute anyone else in the case or release any more information, Blanche announced that she would interview Epstein’s co-defendant, Ghislaine Maxwell.
In the interview, Maxwell said he never saw Trump behave inappropriately while he was friends with Epstein. He was then taken to a low-security facility. Blanche defended this move as necessary for her own safety.
Blanche also led the Justice Department’s release of its Epstein files after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act. He announced in December that the Justice Department would release hundreds of thousands of files, then released only a fraction of that amount.
The department made other files public at the end of January. Millions were withheld, most of which Blanche said were duplicates, but about 200,000 were held or restructured for various legal reasons.
The co-authors of this legislation, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said that could be a violation of the act and that most of that information should be released. Blanche said she is in compliance with the law.
During a podcast appearance, Blanche was asked about Epstein and the many conspiracy theories swirling around. He said he is not a conspiracy theorist but talks about their “beauty” and “importance”.
“When I say I’m not a conspiracy theorist, it’s because if you prove that one person is right, it’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s completely true,” he said.
After Trump’s announcement on Thursday, Blanche went to X to thank Bondi for her “leadership and friendship” and Trump for her “confidence and the opportunity to work with her.”
“We will continue to support the blue, enforce the law, and do everything in our power to keep America safe,” his official said.
