Acting AG Blanche says Trump has a 'right' and 'duty' to order DOJ to investigate his enemies

At his first press conference as Acting Attorney General on April 7, 2026, Todd Blanche told reporters at the Justice Department in Washington that President Donald Trump has a "right" and "duty" to order the department to investigate his political opponents. Asked how he would reconcile Trump's demands for prosecutions of his enemies with the administration's stated goal of ending the "weaponization" of the federal government, Blanche did not disavow the demands. He acknowledged that among thousands of ongoing DOJ investigations, some "involve men, women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with and believes should be investigated," and said that directing such investigations is the president's prerogative as the nation's leader.

Blanche also rejected the suggestion that Trump's demands constituted improper "pressure" on the department or something that would "keep me up at night," recasting them instead as orders to investigate "to the fullest extent of the law using all the resources we can." He made the remarks standing alongside Colin McDonald, the newly installed assistant attorney general for national fraud enforcement — a position created by the White House that Democrats and legal experts have warned could be repurposed for the administration's retribution campaign against political opponents and Democratic-led states.

The statement is significant because it is the nation's chief federal law-enforcement officer publicly endorsing the principle that the president may direct DOJ investigations of his political opponents — a direct repudiation of the prosecutorial-independence norm. Blanche had assumed the acting role only days earlier, after Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi in part over frustration that she had not aggressively enough prosecuted his foes; under Bondi the department had already opened probes and brought charges against figures including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The Standing records this entry as the public articulation of the weaponization principle by the Attorney General himself — distinct from, but of a piece with, specific weaponization acts already in the archive such as the April 14, 2026 DOJ demand for Wayne County, Michigan's 2024 ballots.