Todd Blanche Makes the Case for His Own Impeachment

President Donald Trump is running scared. And he has Attorney General Todd Blanche running with him.

For years, Democrats have campaigned on the promise to root out the Trump administration’s corruption and incompetence. He must have thought they were kidding.

Trump’s Baseless Threat

On November 7, the same day that he named Stephen Miller his new chief of staff, Trump issued a long social media screed. He complained that the incoming Democratic Congress was going to utilize its power under the Constitution to investigate his administration. Trump wrote:

The Democrats are going around threatening a lot of people, including the Attorney General of the United States, and others, with Impeachment and many other forms of punishment… This is extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable for this.

It is not extortion to investigate executive branch malfeasance or to call for the impeachment of the worst attorney general in US history. But Blanche is Trump’s enforcer, so Trump knew how to handle his unpleasant new situation. He concluded his diatribe with a direction to Blanche:

Threatening letters have been sent to many people, all innocent, from Democrat Political Leaders. By copy of this statement, I am ordering the Department of Justice to look into this criminal act, immediately!

Blanche Bows to the Aspiring King

Like Trump, Blanche knows that sometimes the best defense is a good offense. It took him less than 24 hours to follow Trump’s lead.

During an interview on CNN’s "State of the Union" on November 8, he singled out incoming House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who had posted a two-word message on election night (“LAWYER UP”).

“I would be very worried if I were a member on that committee,” Blanche said. He also asserted that the Justice Department would defend all executive branch members against impeachment, although it has no constitutional obligation to do so. (E.g., The department did not defend Trump in his impeachment trials.)

Blanche is the one who should be worried. Repeating Trump’s threat is more evidence that he is unfit to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. The record against him was already overwhelming. During his brief tenure as deputy, acting, and now permanent attorney general, many of his accomplishments for Trump were already the subject of a New York Bar Association complaint signed by a bipartisan group of more than 100 former federal and state judges.

His worst actions have been his abuse of the nation’s law enforcement apparatus to target Trump’s political opponents—as he did again in his CNN interview. It’s a classic move in a would-be dictator’s playbook and antithetical to democracy. It aims to punish and deter.

The litany of Blanche’s other impeachable offenses include:

• Signing an agreement purporting to give Trump and his family immunity from Internal Revenue Service audits;
• Pursuing Trump’s bogus voter-fraud claims, including the filing of frivolous lawsuits against states for their voter rolls;
• Hollowing out career Justice Department staff;
• Stripping the Justice Department of its institutional independence; and
• Destroying the department’s credibility, including the “presumption of regularity” whereby federal judges were able to believe that the DOJ attorneys appearing before them were telling the truth.

It will take years for the department to recover from his carnage. And Congress should make Blanche’s impeachment a warning for future generations.

Will Republicans Desert Him?

Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general was by the thinnest of margins in the Senate: 50-to-49. That put him in the same company as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (50-to-50 vote with JD Vance supplying the tie-breaking 51st vote.)

If the Democratic House starts the process in January, Blanche will be impeached by the requisite simple majority (218). That’s what it means to have 255 Democrats (and counting) in the House of Representatives.

The Senate is a more interesting story. A two-thirds supermajority is necessary to convict him. Even if Democrats get to 56 members with the two outstanding races in Alaska and Mississippi, at least 11 Republicans would have to join them.

At that point, Senate Republicans would face a dilemma: If they vote to acquit, they will give Democrats another issue for the 2028 campaign; if they vote to convict, they’ll risk the ire of Trump. Although wildly unpopular, Trump still has millions of supporters.

Blanche’s malfeasance should transcend partisan politics. He has abandoned his responsibilities under the Constitution. He has forsaken his country and his oath as an attorney. He has earned impeachment, conviction, and removal from office.

And every day—with his own words and deeds—Blanche proves the case against himself over and over again.

He should lawyer up.