DOJ's Todd Blanche, who once blasted 'vindictive' prosecution of Trump, defends Comey charges
Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department, once assailed what he described as a calculated and "vindictive" effort by federal prosecutors driven by political animus to target a defendant who had committed no crimes.
In that instance, he was speaking for his client at the time -- Donald Trump.
In a 2023 court filing seeking to dismiss the federal case brought against Trump for his efforts to subvert his 2020 election loss, Blanche -- who was then Trump's defense attorney -- wrote of an endeavor by "biased prosecutors" who "pursued charges despite the evidence, rather than based on it," including "one prosecutor violating DOJ rules and ethical norms by forecasting the investigation in a television interview."
He further cited reports that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland felt "boxed in" at the time to indict Trump after, Blanche said, President Joe Biden "pressured DOJ to pursue the nakedly political indictment in this case."
"These actions, which are demonstrated by, inter alia, Biden's public statements and reports from the New York Times and Washington Post based on leaks from participants in the investigation, require further inquiry and dismissal of the indictment," Blanche wrote.
On Friday in a television interview with Fox News, however, Blanche took a differing position as he defended the Justice Department's decision to seek an indictment against one of President Trump's political foes, former FBI Director James Comey.
The charges against Comey for allegedly lying to Congress in testimony in 2020, came following a rushed effort by a Trump-installed prosecutor who dismissed the recommendations of career prosecutors who had determined that Comey's conduct did not amount to a crime. Comey, who has denied the charges, said following the indictment, "I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I am innocent, so let's have a trial."
"This was a case -- again, this is not just pulled out of thin air," Blanche said told Fox News. "It was prosecuted by the Eastern District of U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria, Virginia, and folks may have their view from looking at the indictment and from knowing Mr. Comey, like a lot of these folks do, and might not be happy with this indictment, but as alleged, these are very serious crimes."
It is unusual for Justice Department officials to comment publicly on a criminal case before it has been fully adjudicated.
But Blanche, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have disregarded such norms since Comey's indictment -- which has also been publicly cheered by President Trump, who last week moved to force out the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, who had resisted bringing charges against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, sources told ABC News.
Trump then issued a social media post urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to move "now" to prosecute Comey and others.
"We can't delay any longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!" Trump wrote.
The reports from The New York Times and Washington Post that Blanche cited in his 2023 motion described private conversations among White House officials expressing concern over the Justice Department not moving quickly enough to address what they saw as clearly criminal conduct on Trump's part, both regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged possession of highly classified records after leaving the White House, before both cases were dropped following November's election due to a long-standing DOJ policy barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
In public, however, President Biden and other White House officials were mostly restrained in their public comments about Trump, saying it would be inappropriate to intrude on the DOJ's independence.
The judge overseeing Trump's election interference case, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, denied Blanche's motion to dismiss the charges, saying Blanche's interpretation was based on a "misreading" of the articles in question, and that most of the facts pointed to a Justice Department that exercised great caution in even opening a criminal investigation of a former president.
When asked in his Friday interview on Fox News whether he himself felt pressured to pursue Comey based on Trump's public comments and his overt instructions in his social media posts, Blanche said he did not.
"I don't take that as pressure," Blanche said. "When the president says that he's reading things or that he wants us to do investigations and he wants us to do our job -- the attorney general does not take that as pressure. I don't take that as pressure. I take that as a president who is working every day for the American people and every day to make sure that we're doing our jobs."
