RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Attorney General Todd Blanche refused Sunday to pledge the Justice Department's independence from the White House, saying he would consider President Trump's views on individual prosecutions.
Why it matters: Trump has remade the DOJ , ousting longtime staffers , urging prosecutions of rivals and installing his former lawyer as attorney general. Blanche made the stakes clear: Trump's wishes can shape who gets investigated and prosecuted .
What he's saying: "No, I'm not going to pledge that," Blanche told NBC's "Meet the Press" after Kristen Welker asked whether DOJ would "always act independently" of the White House.
"And no attorney general should ever pledge that," he added.
Zoom in: Blanche said "yes, of course" Trump should have a voice in individual prosecution decisions.
"The president of the United States, the elected president of the United States, says something to me," he said. "And I'm supposed to say to you, 'I would say no.' I mean, that's not the way it works."
Catch up quick: Blanche called it an "extraordinarily false narrative" that Trump tells him, "Go prosecute X or Y." Yet Trump regularly broadcasts whom he wants prosecuted.
Last September, Trump called for prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), writing: "They're all guilty as hell. … JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!"
The DOJ charged Comey and James, though a judge dismissed those cases. Prosecutors later charged Comey again , over a social media post they say threatened Trump. Comey asked the judge to dismiss the case.
This month, Trump told D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to revisit a vandalism case she dropped after evidence showed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool's damage resulted from a flawed installation.
The other side: On "Fox News Sunday," Blanche told Shannon Bream that Trump "would expect me to tell him no" when they disagree legally.
"The president loves disagreement," he said.
Driving the news: Blanche's Sunday interviews capped his first week as attorney general after the Senate confirmed him 50–49.
Days after being sworn in, Blanche warmed up the crowd for Trump at a Long Island event boosting Republican candidates.
His nomination nearly collapsed over a Trump–IRS settlement that created a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund.
Senators warned that people prosecuted for the Jan. 6 attack, including those who assaulted police, could seek payouts. GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis withheld support until Blanche rescinded the order.
On Sunday, however, Blanche said while the fund is dead, he would not rule out Jan. 6 defendants receiving money through the government's claims process .
Context: This isn't the first time Blanche has rejected a wall between the DOJ and Trump.
In May, he told Congress that DOJ's policy direction comes from Trump: "We take them from the president."
On Steve Bannon's podcast in April, he criticized the idea that "somehow the Department of Justice is independent from the President of the United States. That is not true."
In written answers to Congress, he invoked the Constitution: The president is the head of the executive branch, and the Justice Department falls within that branch.
Flashback: Trump has treated alleged political influence over past attorneys general as scandalous.
In 2016, Trump called it disgraceful that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke privately with former President Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley demanded an inspector general review of the conversation. That review found no evidence of political bias but called the meeting an error in judgment.
Republicans have also spent years accusing former Attorney General Merrick Garland's DOJ of political weaponization.
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