by
Tasos
Katopodis/Getty
Images)
Todd
Blanche
is
having
a
week.
He
couldn’t
find
the
bullet.
He
filed
what
may
be
the
most
unhinged
document
ever
submitted
to
a
federal
court.
And,
per
Politico’s
Daniel
Lippman,
he
can’t
get
into
the
Metropolitan
Club.
Cue
the
sad
trombone.
Around
February,
Blanche
reportedly
started
the
rigorous
process
to
join
the
Metropolitan
Club,
one
of
Washington’s
oldest
and
very
important
private
clubs.
The
application
process
requires
two
sponsors
and
at
least
eight
supportive
letters
from
current
members.
Blanche’s
sponsors
are
Biglaw
heavy
hitters:
Bill
Burck,
global
co-managing
partner
at
Quinn
Emanuel,
and
James
M.
McDonald,
a
litigation
partner
at
Sullivan
&
Cromwell
—
both
white-collar
heavyweights,
both
presumably
capable
of
vouching
for
a
man’s
fitness
to
eat
lunch
in
a
nice
room.
And
yet.
At
least
six
members
have
written
to
the
Metropolitan
Club’s
board
of
directors
to
object
to
Blanche’s
joining,
saying
he’s
too
polarizing
and
has
politicized
the
Justice
Department.
The
members
who
spoke
to
Politico
were
granted
anonymity
because
the
club
prohibits
its
members
from
speaking
to
the
media
about
internal
matters.
The
objections
are
not
vague.
“He
is
targeting
a
lot
of
people,
and
the
Justice
Department
is
targeting
a
lot
of
the
members
of
the
club,
like
judges,
nonprofit
organizations
and
universities,”
one
member
said.
That
is
not
a
small
point.
Federal
Reserve
Chair
Jerome
Powell
—
whom
the
DOJ
was
investigating
for
not
cutting
interest
rates
as
part
of
a
probe
into
central
bank
renovations
—
is
a
club
member.
The
same
member
was
not
done:
“The
Trump
administration
is
at
war
with
most
American
institutions,
and
so
the
people
who
represent
those
institutions,
many
of
them
are
at
the
club.
And
the
club
is
the
kind
of
place
where
you
want
to
be
able
to
relax
and
have
a
congenial
conversation.
But
if
he’s
in
there,
given
that
the
Justice
Department
is
so
combative
and
aggressive,
this
is
not
the
kind
of
tone
that
we
want.”
Well,
well,
well,
if
it
isn’t
the
consequences
of
Blanche’s
own
actions.
Since
taking
over
the
DOJ,
Blanche
has
declared
war
on
the
federal
judiciary,
warned
white-collar
lawyers
that
their
public
criticism
of
the
administration
was
being
monitored,
moved
to
personally
cover
up
key
Epstein
files,
argued
that
restaurant
hecklers
might
be
a
RICO
enterprise,
and
indicted
the
Southern
Poverty
Law
Center
—
so
“too
polarizing
for
the
Metropolitan
Club”
is,
if
anything,
underselling
it.
A
second
member
who
penned
a
rejection
letter
called
Blanche’s
public
comments
endorsing
Trump’s
use
of
the
DOJ
to
target
political
enemies
“pretty
startling.”
And
a
third
went
full
patrician:
“I
am
disappointed
that
the
club’s
standards
are
slipping
on
so
many
levels
and
can
only
hope
that
the
club
leadership
will
recover,
grab
the
rudder
and
set
us
on
a
smooth
sail
once
again.”
Someone
has
been
waiting
their
entire
life
to
write
that
sentence
and
they
finally
got
their
moment.
But
Blanche
isn’t
the
only
controversial
political
figure
to
get
the
cold
shoulder
from
the
club.
Donald
Rumsfeld
—
Bush-era
Secretary
of
Defense,
architect
of
the
Iraq
War,
a
man
who
presided
over
Abu
Ghraib
—
was
reportedly
rejected
by
the
Metropolitan
Club.
There
is
also
something
almost
poignant
about
the
sponsors
here.
Two
Biglaw
partners
from
Quinn
Emanuel
and
Sullivan
&
Cromwell
—
exactly
the
kind
of
establishment
legal
figures
who
built
careers
on
the
idea
that
the
rule
of
law
is
a
thing
worth
preserving
—
putting
their
names
on
a
membership
application
for
the
man
who,
this
very
week,
put
his
name
on
what
the
legal
internet
has
been
calling
the
most
embarrassing
court
filing
in
recent
memory.
They
may
want
to
have
a
quiet
word
with
their
sponsee
about
the
ALL
CAPS
situation
before
the
board
votes.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
free
to
email her with
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments
and
follow
her
on
Twitter @Kathryn1 or
Bluesky @Kathryn1