OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:14 PM – Thursday, November 14, 2024
Todd Blanche, a former federal prosecutor who has legally represented Donald Trump in a number of cases, will be the new deputy attorney general under the 47th president-elect after being confirmed by the Senate.
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Blanche was previously employed at the Southern District of the New York U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken System of Justice for far too long,” Trump said in a statement.
Blanche would be the second-ranking official beneath the new attorney general, Matt Gaetz, if confirmed. Gaetz, a former representative from Florida, was announced as Trump’s nominee for AG on Wednesday.
“Todd served for nine years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, including as a supervisor for almost four years. As co-chief of the Violent Crimes unit and later of the White Plains Division, he supervised investigations and prosecutions involving public corruption, securities fraud, bank and wire frauds, Medicare and federal program frauds, RICO violations, violent crimes, and other criminal violations,” his legal firm’s website states.
“Todd is counsel of record for President Donald J. Trump in the two prosecutions brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the Southern District of Florida and the District of Columbia, as well as the prosecution brought by the New York County District Attorney,” it continues.
Trump also announced that Emil Bove, another attorney who has represented him in court, will be the acting deputy attorney general while Blanche is being confirmed by the Senate. After Blanche is confirmed, Bove will take on his official role as the principal associate deputy attorney general.
Bove and Blanche both represented Trump in the historic New York federal trial. In that case, Trump has not been sentenced, as the judge considers arguments on his immunity from prosecution as the new president-elect.
The president-elect’s victory will most likely halt any federal prosecution efforts set in motion against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith, given the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) long-standing policy that maintains a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Smith is also reportedly working to finalize whatever work he has left, in order to retire before Trump takes back the White House in January, denying the 47th president the chance to fire him, sources say.
In addition, Trump appointed Dean John Sauer as his solicitor general.
In a case where Trump was granted extensive immunity from prosecution, Sauer defended Trump in the Supreme Court. The solicitor general represents the U.S. government before the Supreme Court.
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