Todd Blanche missed a beat last week.
During his confirmation hearing for acting attorney general, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), asked a simple question. Is Trump your friend?
Blanche, the man leading the Justice Department, almost said yes. He corrected himself quickly. He is was Trump’s lawyer.
The distinction matters. Blanche used to defend the former president in criminal cases. Now he heads the DOJ. His client isn’t Donald Trump. It’s the United States. But the line is blurry when the top legal official spent his career defending one specific man.
Blanche is leading the department because the attorney general slot is vacant. He is the Senate-confirmed Deputy Attorney General (DAG). By law, that makes him the head.
But let’s look at what he’s actually doing.
Blanche has acted as Trump’s hammer. He oversees prosecutions of people Trump thinks are enemies. Now Trump wants him in the top job. This signals confidence. The former criminal defense lawyer is now a personal enforcer in uniform.
It is weird for a president to put his defense counsel in such power. Most presidents don’t even have a criminal defense lawyer in their inner circle. Trump has a string of them. These lawyers defended him on tax fraud, falsifying records, classified documents, and election interference.
Trump has put at least five of these lawyers into top federal jobs.
This is not just a personnel change. It reshapes how America is governed.
The Justice Department as a political weapon
Two of Trump’s lawyers, Blanche and Solicitor General John Soler (note: text says Sauer, likely John Sauer), lead the DOJ.
Next to the military, no institution is more powerful. The DOJ arrests people. It prosecutes crimes. It is supposed to act with restraint.
Blanche is not exercising restraint. He has used DOJ power against political rivals. He has removed constraints on Trump’s agenda. Meanwhile, Sauer works to strip away other limits, arguing directly to the Supreme Court.
The judiciary is the brake on presidential power. But three of Trump’s former lawyers now sit as US Court of Appeals judges. That is lifetime tenure. They are one step below the Supreme Court.
Every appointee from Trump’s legal team weakens the constraints on the administration.
Trump isn’t the only one. John F. Kennedy made his brother Attorney General. Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Abe Fortes to the Supreme Court after Fortes handled a 1948 dispute.
But there is a difference. Those were political alliances. Blanche is a criminal defense lawyer brought in to pursue vendettas. This breaks post-Watergate norms. Those rules were created to stop the DOJ from becoming a weapon. Fortes resigned in disgrace. He is a warning, not a model.
The current Supreme Court has conservative Republicans. Some still push back against Trump. They questioned his tariffs, for example. But if Trump fills the bench with loyalists, that independence vanishes. A MAGA-controlled judiciary removes the final check on executive authority.
Trump’s lawyers are already building an unchecked administration.
How Trump’s legal team is reshaping legal norms
Justin Smith and Matthew Schwartz recently joined the bench. Their records are thin. Not much to judge yet.
Blanche, Emil Bove, and John Sauer are different. They are ruthless.
Blanche took over in March 2025 as DAG. He took full control in April after Pam Bondi left. Bondi was also one of Trump’s former personal lawyers.
Blanche has overseen dubious prosecutions.
James Comey? Charged.
Letitia James, New York’s Attorney General? Criminal proceedings launched.
There is evidence Blanche personally directs meritless charges against prominent Democrats.
Take Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
In May 2025, Baraka visited an ICE detention facility. He asked for a tour. Officers let him inside, then told him to leave. He did.
Then a call came in.
A video shows an officer telling colleagues: “We are arresting the mayor right now… per the deputy attorney general of the United State.”
Blanche ordered it.
Did Baraka commit a crime? No one checked. The mayor was charged with misdemeanor trespassing. Charges dropped two weeks later. A federal judge rebuked prosecutors. They were using the immense power of the government to make examples without cause.
Blanche also tried to create a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund.” The idea? Pay Trump’s allies. Potentially even January 6ers.
Congress pushed back. Bipartisan rejection killed it. But a DOJ press release claimed the fund was “established.” Blanche named the five people who would administer it. The fund was dead on arrival, but the attempt showed how far the department will go.
Emil Bove was Blanche’s partner. Then Blanche’s deputy. Then a judge.
As deputy, Bove sparked a revolt. He ordered the dismissal of corruption charges against former NYC Mayor Eric Adams. The catch? Dismissed “without prejudice.” If Adams didn’t cooperate with Trump’s immigration crackdown, charges could return.
Seven federal prosecutors quit.
Danielle Sassoon, who clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, was one. Hagan Scotten wrote a resignation letter to Bove.
“I expect you will eventually find someone who has enough of a fool… or enough of a coward… to file your motion. But it wasn’t going to be me.”
Scotten clerked for John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh. He didn’t want to comply.
Another whistleblower complaint claims Bove said in a meeting about halted deportations that the DOJ should tell the courts “fuck you.”
Trump appointed Bove to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Judges usually stay quiet. Bove didn’t.
He attended a Trump rally. The background on his phone reportedly showed a defiant Trump.
The shadow docket and Supreme Court wins
John Sauer is Solicitor General. His job is defending federal programs in the Supreme Court.
He lost some big battles. The Court struck down some tariffs last winter. They blocked Trump’s attempt to strip citizenship from newborn Americans.
Sauer still has a strong winning record. Why? The Court is six Republicans. They like Trump’s agenda.
The same Court allowed Trump to claim immunity from criminal prosecution. Sauer argued it. He got them to listen.
Sauer is also effective on the “shadow docket.” These are emergency orders. Trump’s first term turned these rare motions into routine litigation. Sauer persuades the conservative justices to block lower courts’ rulings against Trump.
A judiciary loyal to one man
Trump took his personal lawyers. He made them judges. He made them the top legal officials.
They are credentialed. They are powerful. And they remain loyal.
Three have lifetime appointments. One leads the prosecutions. One defends the administration.
The rule of law requires officials to obey constraints. Agencies follow the law out of duty. Judges rein in executive overreach.
These norms exist because of abuses under Nixon. They constrain federal prosecutors.
The current DOJ is hostile to these norms. Trump’s legal team is removing the brakes.
A federal government unconstrained by anything isn’t much of a government. It’s a person.
And that person is still in the White House.
