{"id":900,"date":"2026-06-26T21:17:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=900"},"modified":"2026-06-26T21:17:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:17:38","slug":"william-barrs-dangerous-endorsement-of-todd-blanche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=900","title":{"rendered":"William Barr\u2019s Dangerous Endorsement of Todd Blanche"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald Trump cares deeply about the Justice Department, and he appears to care about exactly one thing: an attorney general who will do whatever he says, specifically in the realm of trying to lock up as many of his political enemies as possible.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Peeling Green Gift to America<\/a><\/p>\n

William Barr, a former attorney general under Trump and an esteemed legal mind within the conservative movement, also cares deeply about the Justice Department, but for different reasons. Barr believes the department plays a key role in advancing conservative priorities in immigration, DEI, deregulation, the prosecution of criminals (real ones, not just people whom Trump hates), and other traditionally Republican policy goals.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general has therefore put Barr in an awkward position. Barr has resolved the dilemma by writing a contorted endorsement of Blanche in The<\/i> Wall Street Journal<\/i>. Barr\u2019s less-than-glowing assessment of Blanche\u2019s qualifications reads like a grudging employee review that recommends the lowest possible raise. \u201cMr. Blanche has the necessary qualities for the job,\u201d he writes. \u201cMr. Blanche has already demonstrated effective leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

In place of enthusiasm for Blanche\u2019s qualifications, Barr shrugs that Trump would never allow anybody more<\/i> qualified than Blanche to hold the job. Blanche \u201cwill run the department as effectively as anyone could under President Trump,\u201d Barr writes.<\/p>\n

The reason Barr has to include this qualification is that nobody <\/i>can run the Justice Department effectively under Trump, if you define \u201ceffectively\u201d to mean following the rule of law. Since the post-Watergate era revealed the dangers of a politicized DOJ, that has been the minimum threshold for the job.<\/p>\n

Barr agrees with this. Or at least, he used to. He wrote in his 2022 memoir:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

As head of the Department of Justice, I continued, the Attorney General is the top prosecutor, overseeing enforcement of the laws through the criminal justice process. It is the responsibility of the Attorney General to ensure that the department\u2019s enforcement actions are insulated from political interference and are based solely on the law, the facts, and the equal treatment of all individuals, without regard to political or personal considerations. For that reason, I said, I could not tolerate political interference in criminal cases and would take the job only based on that understanding. The President agreed and said that, if he picked me, he would not interfere and would expect me to exercise my independent judgment to make the call I thought was right.<\/p>\n

Barr reported, with comical understatement, that Trump \u201cagreed in principle, though perhaps a little begrudgingly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Just how begrudging that agreement was has grown glaringly evident during Trump\u2019s second term. The Justice Department has investigated or charged a slew of Trump enemies, including but not limited to, former FBI Director James Comey; New York Attorney General Letitia James; Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook; and the Democratic members of Congress Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Mark Kelly, and Elissa Slotkin.<\/p>\n

The entire reason Blanche was nominated for the job is reportedly that his predecessor, Pam Bondi, failed to lock up Trump\u2019s enemies fast enough for the president\u2019s liking, mainly because the charges she brought against them kept falling apart. Blanche has auditioned for the job as a more effective judicial hit man, pursuing ginned-up charges against former CIA Director John Brennan, another Trump target.<\/p>\n

Read more Supergirl Crashes and Burns<\/a><\/p>\n

Blanche has been selected to do one thing. What does Barr think about that one thing? He does not say. The op-ed literally does not mention, at any point, Blanche\u2019s willingness to corrupt the Department of Justice in ways Barr himself called unacceptable, or even Trump\u2019s desire<\/i> that he do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of the criticism of Mr. Blanche rests on the idea that the Justice Department should be independent of the president and that it\u2019s inherently wrong for an attorney general to accede to the president\u2019s views,\u201d Barr concedes. However, he says it is not \u201cnecessarily wrong for an attorney general to defer to the president\u2019s decisions\u2014so long as he believes he is acting lawfully and upholding the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okay, but all evidence suggests that Blanche simply believes his job is to prosecute whoever Trump wants him to, which seems like a reason not to vote for his nomination.<\/p>\n

Barr\u2019s decision to treat Blanche\u2019s apparent ginning up of fake crimes against Trump\u2019s enemies as irrelevant to his qualifications is a bit like endorsing Genghis Khan\u2019s leadership of the Mongol horde on the basis of his trade agenda while ignoring his policies on burning cities to the ground and building pyramids of human skulls.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Barr believes that Trump is going to have an attorney general who uses the law as a weapon against Trump\u2019s enemies regardless, so the president might as well have one who can also do a few things Barr cares about. Yet this argument requires senators to actively affirm Blanche, which would legitimize his naked corruption of the law. Indeed, by ignoring Blanche\u2019s rampage of pretextual legal threats against Trump\u2019s enemies, Barr himself is legitimizing them.<\/p>\n

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt\u2019s 2018 book, How Democracies Die<\/i>, argues that the most decisive figures in the success or failure of an authoritarian attempt are the would-be authoritarian\u2019s ideological allies. They must decide whether to join the aspiring despot, with the inducement of advancing their traditional ideological goals, or break with him and defend democracy.<\/p>\n

Barr is a paradigmatic example of the Republican establishment\u2019s response to the Trump era. Unfortunately, he seems to have read How Democracies Die<\/i> as a how-to guide.<\/p>\n

Read more Europe\u2019s Come-to-AC Moment<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump\u2019s former attorney general proposes a Senate blessing of Trump\u2019s threats to the rule of law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ideas"],"yoast_head":"\nWilliam Barr\u2019s Dangerous Endorsement of Todd Blanche - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=900\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"William Barr\u2019s Dangerous Endorsement of Todd Blanche - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trump\u2019s former attorney general proposes a Senate blessing of Trump\u2019s threats to the rule of law.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=900\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T21:17:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=900#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=900\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"William Barr\u2019s Dangerous Endorsement of Todd Blanche\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T21:17:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=900\"},\"wordCount\":956,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=900#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/2c9802eef0e26a07298739627b85fd88.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Ideas\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=900#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=900\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=900\",\"name\":\"William Barr\u2019s Dangerous Endorsement of Todd Blanche - 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