Inside Todd Blanche’s audition for attorney general

(CNN) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche traveled to Florida on Monday where he met with a new prosecutor tapped to handle one of the most important cases to President Donald Trump — the investigation into former CIA director and Trump critic John Brennan.

The meeting comes as Blanche fights to prove he’s the man to deliver on Trump’s biggest priority: prosecuting the president’s political adversaries.

Less than two weeks in, Blanche has taken public steps toward delivering on Trump’s agenda by making changes to the team investigating Brennan, releasing a much-anticipated report on anti-abortion protests, and overseeing an effort to vacate the convictions of members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Trump has commended Blanche’s work as acting attorney general so far, and, according to current and former administration officials who spoke to CNN, the job appears to be his to lose.

But officials say Blanche must still contend with many of the hurdles that plagued the tenure of former Attorney General Pam Bondi before her recent firing.

Like Bondi, he must face low morale among prosecutors and the persistent controversy surrounding the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The high profile prosecutions of Trump’s political foes must survive judges and grand juries who have so far rebuffed many of the attempts.

And buy-in from career prosecutors tasked with the investigations isn’t guaranteed.

“There are many prosecutors out there who are opposed to the president’s agenda and are not interested in doing the kinds of cases that are important to the White House,” Civil Rights Division Chief Harmeet Dhillon recently told CNN.

Blanche will have to face these challenges while other top Justice Department officials attempt to prove their ability to carry out Trump’s agenda if he cannot.

Prosecuting Trump’s political foes

While in Florida to speak at a legal event Monday, Blanche met with Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the southern district of Florida; justice official Christopher-James DeLorenz; and newly installed Counselor to the Attorney General Joseph diGenova, according to a Justice Department official. The meeting had not previously been reported.

DiGenova will now work on the investigation into Brennan, which is focused on one of the president’s longest standing political grievances — the 2017 intelligence assessment that found ​Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help him.

For Trump, prosecutions like Brennan’s — and the pursuit of debunked claims of a stolen 2020 election — are top of mind. He previously complained directly to Justice Department officials that he has not been pleased with the slow-moving progress.

Some prosecutions that did move along quickly since fell apart. In November, a federal judge dismissed the charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. The Justice Department tried multiple times to re-indict James, but failed to convince a grand jury to bring charges.

In February, a grand jury rejected criminal charges against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video urging service members to defy illegal orders from the Trump administration.

The job of delivering on Trump’s agenda took a toll on Bondi, who sources said believed that she was at times being asked to do the impossible.

Bondi declined to comment for this story.

When she first took office, she formed the “Weaponization Working Group” which was tasked with investigating actions by prosecutors during the previous administrations who Trump officials allege were politically motivated.

Their targets include the cases brought by James, as well as former special counsel Jack Smith, and the sprawling prosecution against those involved in the US Capitol riot. The group was tasked with issuing public reports that could support criminal charges.

By the time Bondi left office in early April, however, the group had not produced a single report.

Associate Attorney General Stan Woodward, the second highest ranking official at the Department, defended the pace of the weaponization group work to CNN.

“It is incumbent upon us not to simply label those travesties as weaponization, but to prove it and go find the evidence of weaponization,” he said. “And that takes time.”

In his first week in office, Blanche oversaw the release of the group’s first report — one that alleged the Biden Justice Department was biased in how it went after abortion protesters. The department fired four prosecutors who worked on the cases.

The report was significant to some Republicans, but the group still has not produced anything related to the people whose investigations resulted in criminal charges against the president.

“Part of the reason the weaponization work has been difficult is that you need people who are MAGA and who are really competent,” said Chad Mizelle, former chief of staff for Bondi. “Many career prosecutors are not interested in this kind of work. It’s a very small group of people.”

Mizelle worked alongside Blanche and notes that even if the Justice Department can bring a case against one of Trump’s political adversaries, they will be up against top defense attorneys.

In the end, though, Mizelle said he is “confident” Blanche will be successful in these prosecutions.

As for career prosecutors who may resist these kinds of investigations, it may have to do with the strength of those cases, said CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig.

“DOJ prosecutors generally do not shy away from challenging, boldface cases; if anything, they’re more likely to be drawn towards high-stakes matters,” said Honig, a former state and federal prosecutor. “So when you see career, nonpolitical prosecutors expressing doubts about certain cases with political overtones, that’s typically because they simply don’t see the proof to support a criminal charge. DOJ prosecutors are aggressive but they’re not reckless, and they won’t bring a charge that they don’t believe will stick.”

But in an administration that has seen a rift between those dedicated to traditional conservatism and diehard Trump loyalism that has become known as being “MAGA,” some still question whether Blanche is willing to do what it takes to deliver on what the president wants.

One senior administration official questioned whether Blanche has done enough to support the MAGA movement.

“Todd is running the show at DOJ, but he has not done enough to support MAGA,” the official said.

Others disagree.

“Todd Blanche put everything on the line to defend President Trump for many years, including representing President Trump in court daily for many years,” said Mike Davis, a longtime Trump legal adviser. “He doesn’t need to prove his MAGA credentials to anyone.”

Epstein still stings

The MAGA base has repeatedly criticized the department’s handling of the Epstein files.

In February 2025, Bondi told Fox News that the Epstein client list — which the department later said there was no evidence of ever existing — was sitting on her desk. Her department also hyped “Epstein binders” of records and handed them out to MAGA influencers, but in the end that initial release contained information that was already in the public domain.

As Bondi repeatedly stumbled, Blanche became the department’s primary spokesman on the investigation and eventually oversaw the release of millions of documents.

His controversial visit to Ghislaine Maxwell in July 2025 and his statement that no charges are expected in the Epstein matter unless new information comes forward had also faced scrutiny.

“First of all, the Epstein situation was the original sin of this Justice Department and Todd doesn’t get us away from that,” said senior administration official

The Justice Department, though, has defended its Epstein efforts.

“The Acting Attorney General met last year with Ghislaine Maxwell and her attorney because she had never met with law enforcement, and it was in the public interest to determine if she had information that had previously not been shared. The entire interview is publicly available,” a Justice Department official said recently.

“As for the file production, all files responsive to the law were released after reviewing millions of documents in a very short timeframe to comply with the Act,” the official said. “Despite it being a popular talking point on social media, any Attorney General will see the same, that all files have been released.”

Justice Department officials on the sidelines

If Blanche cannot satisfy the president, there are several high-profile Justice Department officials who appear poised to step-in.

Over the last few months, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro — a well-known TV personality with a direct line to the president — has sought the limelight.

She set up a tip line for any information regarding former Rep. Eric Swalwell amid allegations of sexual abuse, and she held a press conference scorching a federal judge for blocking DOJ subpoenas against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Pirro’s ability to operate with more autonomy than other US attorneys — at times having surprised the White House with her work — has raised questions about whether she’s auditioning for the attorney general job.

In response to suggestions that she may want to step into the role, Pirro issued a statement to CNN saying: “As United States Attorney for D.C., I have seen firsthand the competence, experience, and leadership ability of Todd Blanche. With over 15 years in the Department of Justice and a unique relationship with the president, he is the best person to run the Department of Justice.”

Dhillon, the hard-charging civil-rights chief, has also been floated as a possible pick for the job. She has worked to reshape the division to focus on reversing DEI initiatives and targeting antisemitism.

She told CNN, “Todd is the President’s choice and I fully support it. I have a great working relationship with him. He is very supportive of rank and file and career lawyers in the building at main justice.”

According to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Blanche can serve in the role of acting attorney general for up to 210 days, so the position does not need to be permanently filled until November.

Even if Blanche gets the job, Trump’s past attorneys general have all, eventually, been fired, replaced, or resigned.

If he doesn’t get the job, though, Blanche recently told reporters he won’t hold it against the president.

“If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say: ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.’”

The-CNN-Wire
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