Trump Taps Loyal Defense Attorney Todd Blanche as Acting Attorney General

Todd Blanche spent three years arguing in courtrooms that Donald Trump was innocent. Now he runs the Justice Department.

Trump announced on Truth Social on April 2, 2026, that he was replacing Attorney General Pam Bondi with Blanche, his 51-year-old former personal criminal defense attorney who had been serving as Deputy Attorney General since March 2025. Trump praised Blanche as "a very talented and respected" official. Blanche responded on X, thanking the president "for the trust and the opportunity to serve."

The elevation completed a striking ascent for a Denver-born Brooklyn Law School graduate who began his career as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York before moving to private practice. Trump hired Blanche in April 2023 to defend him against the Manhattan District Attorney's hush-money prosecution involving Stormy Daniels. Blanche went on to lead Trump's defense in both the federal classified documents case and the federal election obstruction case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Despite those efforts, Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts in the New York hush-money trial, making him the first sitting or former U.S. president ever convicted of a felony.

Blanche's confirmation as Deputy AG by the Republican-led Senate in March 2025 was widely viewed as a reward for that legal loyalty. During those confirmation hearings, he repeatedly deflected questions about whether he would recuse himself from matters involving Trump, offering the assurance: "I don't think President Trump is going to ask me to do anything illegal."

Bondi's removal came after Trump grew increasingly frustrated with her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and what he viewed as her limited success in targeting his political rivals. She made direct personal appeals to Trump and his closest advisers in her final days, but they proved unsuccessful. Her tenure had already drawn bipartisan criticism over the DOJ's management of those same Epstein files. In announcing her departure, Trump claimed murders had fallen to their "lowest level since 1900" during her tenure, a claim offered without independent verification.

The transition carries an uncomfortable symmetry. Like Bondi before him, Blanche arrived at the department as a figure whose advancement was explicitly bound to personal loyalty. Just days before his elevation, he appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference and cheered the purge of federal prosecutors who had previously worked on Trump-related investigations. An administration official told Axios that Blanche is now among those Trump is considering for the permanent attorney general nomination.

Former DOJ officials and ethics experts have raised concerns about Blanche's capacity to lead the department impartially, with some arguing his background as Trump's personal criminal defense attorney raises issues of misconduct. He is simultaneously serving as acting Librarian of Congress, a position he has held since May 2025 whose legality remains legally disputed.

Whether Blanche can satisfy a president who fired the last attorney general for insufficient aggression is the defining test his tenure will face.