Newsweek, June 2026
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, marking a swift rise for his former personal lawyer that stands in stark contrast with the fate of his predecessor, former Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi was fired in April after failing to deliver on the president’s demands for criminal cases against his adversaries and following months of scrutiny over the Justice Department’s handling of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.
Blanche, who was brought into the department as deputy attorney general and then elevated to acting attorney general after Bondi’s firing, made clear that he was intent on proving his loyalty to Trump by accelerating investigations into the president’s foes and announcing a nearly $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate the president’s allies for alleged political persecution.
