Todd Blanche: devoted Trump enforcer rewarded with top nomination

Todd Blanche’s nomination to be permanently made the attorney general marks the apex of a gamble from a man who bet everything on representing Donald Trump and became one of his most steadfast and punishing enforcers. Trump announced the news at the White House on Monday. The nomination will require Senate confirmation to become permanent. Blanche was a relatively unknown lawyer until he joined Trump’s legal team in March of 2023, just after Trump was indicted for the first time in a New York state case involving a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels. Blanche, a registered Democrat until a few years ago, resigned a lucrative partnership at a Wall Street law firm to represent the president, essentially betting everything on Trump at a moment when Trump faced mounting criminal charges and the walls seemed to be closing in. Blanche began his career as a paralegal in the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York and attended law school at night before eventually becoming a prosecutor. Acquaintances have described him to the New York Times as a talented lawyer who is a centrist and competitive. Blanche’s bet on Trump paid off spectacularly. Trump wound up facing no serious consequence in any of the four criminal cases he faced, and Blanche was rewarded with a post as the deputy attorney general, the number two official in the justice department. …