US Attorney General Blanche refuses to guarantee DOJ independence from Trump

US Attorney General Todd Blanche has refused to pledge that the Justice Department will always operate independently of President Donald Trump. In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, Blanche said no attorney general should ever make such a commitment. He asserted that Trump would never ask him to cross an ethical or legal line, calling the opposite narrative 'completely false'.

Blanche was confirmed in a narrow 50-49 Senate vote earlier this month, with every Democrat and two Republicans opposing him. Before becoming attorney general, he served as Trump's criminal defence lawyer in the New York case that led to Trump's conviction on 34 felony counts. Times Now notes that Blanche previously said if Trump fired him, his response would be 'I love you, sir'.

During the same interview, Blanche defended Trump's pardon of about 1,500 January 6 defendants, including over 170 who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers. He said he was offering no opinion on the decision but that issuing pardons is within the president's rights.