1,200 DOJ Alums Ask Senators to Reject Blanche, Who Has ‘Utterly Failed to Abide By’ His Oath

A ‘Government of Laws, Not of Men’

The Justice Department alumni group, Justice Connection, has sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging senators to reject acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to be AG ahead of his confirmation hearing next week.

The letter is signed by 1,200 former DOJ employees. Signees’ experience spans 14 administrations, both Democratic and Republican, and includes “dozens of U.S. attorneys, component heads, and other senior leaders, many of whom led major offices across the department and FBI. They also include signatories who worked in 77 U.S. Attorney’s Offices, dozens of whom worked in Blanche’s former office in the Southern District of New York,” Justice Connection said in a statement.

The letter focuses primarily on Blanche’s disastrous leadership at the Justice Department, and the part he has played in dismantling the longstanding firewall between the Justice Department and the White House that Trump has taken a sledgehammer to during his second term. They call out the nominee for his role in the “degradation of DOJ’s apolitical career workforce.”

The letter helps unpack the crucial role of civil servants at the DOJ and Blanche’s role in carrying out Trump’s retribution against them, often for politically motivated reasons. An excerpt:

Of the more than 100,000 employees at the Justice Department, 99 percent are career civil servants. Anyone who’s worked there, and through administrations of both parties, knows they are the department’s backbone. They’re the ones who keep us safe by prosecuting violent crime, investigating drug trafficking, and countering terrorism and espionage. They keep us prosperous by enforcing antitrust laws and holding financial fraudsters accountable. They protect our fundamental freedoms by upholding civil rights laws, and they keep our elected officials honest by pursuing public corruption.

Todd Blanche knows this; he served as a career DOJ prosecutor for almost a decade. But that hasn’t stopped him from demonizing career employees, undermining their work, and driving them out of the department.

Under Blanche’s leadership, approximately 16,000 employees have left, and departures aren’t slowing down. They include FBI agents and analysts in field offices across the country, and more than a quarter of the department’s attorneys.

Blanche has fired or overseen the firings of hundreds of these employees – usually without notice, and for improper, unlawful reasons. Some were terminated for having worked on cases the President didn’t like; for being relatives of the President’s foes; for adjudicating immigration cases in accordance with due process; for declining to initiate vindictive prosecutions; or for refusing to lie in court. These terminations violate the very civil service statutes designed to prevent corruption and political purges.

“The culture of fear Blanche has instilled within DOJ’s workforce must end,” the former DOJ employees concluded, before urging members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Blanche’s nomination.

“DOJ Respect for career professionals must return. Would-be job applicants need to believe the Justice Department lives up to the virtue in its name. And instead of exhibiting fealty to the president, the Attorney General must heed John Adams’ admonition that our republic remains a ‘government of laws, not of men.’ For the sake of the institution where we once proudly served, we urge you to reject Todd Blanche’s nomination,” they wrote.

While Republicans make up the majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee — the panel that will have to vote to bring Blanche’s nomination to the Senate floor for a final vote — Blanche’s confirmation in the Senate is not guaranteed at this point. It’s not even guaranteed that his nomination will move out of committee.

That’s, in part, because two lame duck Republican who either have beef with President Trump or have made it clear they’re not always a rubber stamp for his agenda in recent months, sit on the committee: Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) (Trump recently ended his career in the Senate) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) (recently retired, sometimes takes issues with Trump’s corruption).

After meeting with Blanche last month, Cornyn posted on X saying he had a positive “interview,” but that he would not make a decision about how to vote until Blanche gave Senate Republicans a more robust briefing on his role in the creation of Trump’s comedically corrupt slush fund, which Blanche has shut down, for now. More from me last month:

Another Loss in the DOJ’s 2020 Conspiracy Theory Investigation

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the DOJ cannot have access to a list of all of the names and personal contact information for the people who served as election workers during the 2020 election in Fulton County — the county that is home to Atlanta, Georgia and many of Trump and MAGA’s delusions about the 2020 election.

The DOJ obtained a grand jury subpoena back in April in an attempt to compel the county to hand over this info for all the county employees and volunteers who helped with administering the election six years ago. A federal judge sided with the county in its legal efforts to block the subpoena. More from the Associated Press:

Fulton County asked a judge to quash the subpoena, arguing it was meant to “target, harass and punish the President’s perceived political opponents” and that it was “grossly over broad and untethered to any reasonable need.”

“Given the low need for the subpoenaed information and the highly burdensome nature of the disclosure of the same, the Subpoena is unreasonable and must be quashed,” U.S. District Judge William Ray wrote in his ruling.

The Latest on Platner

• Bangor Daily News: Troy Jackson files paperwork to explore replacing Graham Platner 
• NYT: Abandoned by Allies, Platner Faces Pressure to End Senate Campaign  
• TPM: Bernie Sanders Advises Platner to ‘Step Aside’ After Rape Allegation
• The TPM Show With Josh & Kate: F*ck Graham Platner
• Politico: A majority of Senate Dems say Platner should drop out. Here’s where they all stand.

More to Read From TPM Today

John Light outlines the stakes in Maine and what would need to happen if Democrat Graham Platner actually listens to the chorus of Democrats pulling their endorsements and calling for him to drop out in the wake of a sexual assault allegation: The Brief: Graham Platner’s Exit Would Set Up a Busy Few Weeks in Maine

Kate Riga covers a ruling today from a federal judge in Massachusetts who denied the Trump administration’s request to stay her ruling blocking key sections of Trump’s  executive order on mail-in ballots while the Trump admin appeals. The Trump administration has filed an emergency appeal of the stay request to the 1st circuit court of appeals: Judge Denies Trump Request to Interfere with Absentee Ballots While Case Against His EO Plays Out

Christopher Mathias writes on what the far-right really means when it talks about “Remigration”: When You Hear ‘Remigration,’ Know That It Means Ethnic Cleansing

Hunter Walker has a new piece out this afternoon looking at how some mainstream Republicans waded into the waters of fringe conspiracy theory this weekend with Patriot Front’s unsettling visit to Washington, D.C.: Elon Musk And GOP House Members Weigh In On Deep White Nationalist Conspiracy Beef

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