Blanche
(Photo
by
Valerie
Plesch/Bloomberg
via
Getty
Images)
Donald
Trump
confirmed
(kinda)
Tuesday
what
anyone
paying
attention
to
the
Department
of
Justice
has
understood
for
the
better
part
of
two
months:
Todd
Blanche
is
going
to
be
the
permanent
Attorney
General
of
the
United
States.
“I
think
he
will,
yeah,”
Trump
told
reporters
when
asked
whether
Blanche
would
get
the
job
permanently.
“I
wanted
to
see
how
he’s
received.
You
know,
we
put
him
as
acting
and
he’s
done
a
very
good
job,
but
I’ve
known
him
a
long
time.”
Not
necessarily
the
most
ringing
endorsement,
but
hey!
Blanche
secured
the
bag.
Making
the
man
that
left
Biglaw
partnership
at
Cadwalader
to
become
Trump’s
full-time
personal
criminal
defense
attorney
endure
a
probationary
period
is
a
wild
bar
to
clear
for
someone
that
loyal,
but
Blanche
pulled
it
off.
To
be
fair,
“how
he’s
received”
appears
to
have
been
the
operative
question
all
along.
According
to
an
earlier
Wall
Street
Journal
report,
Trump
had
not
decided
on
any
permanent
replacement
for
Bondi
and
was
interested
in
seeing
how
Blanche
performed
in
the
role.
And
Blanche,
to
his
considerable
credit
as
a
performer,
has
performed…
relentlessly.
He
has
performed
with
the
energy
of
a
man
who
knows
exactly
what’s
at
stake
and
is
not
leaving
anything
in
the
green
room.
We
have
been
watching
the
audition
tape
compile
in
real
time.
When
Blanche
got
the
acting
designation,
he
announced
at
his
very
first
press
conference
that
the
DOJ’s
official
position
is
that
the
president
has
a
“right”
to
direct
criminal
investigations
of
his
political
enemies,
establishing
the
central
thesis
of
his
tenure
before
his
chair
was
even
warm.
He
announced
the
second
Comey
indictment
with
a
full
press
conference,
standing
proudly
next
to
Kash
Patel,
before
later
attempting
to
claim
he
had
no
idea
who
the
prosecutors
involved
were,
a
position
complicated
by
the
fact
that
he’d
introduced
the
man
by
name.
He
went
on
television
to
defend
voter
ID
laws
and
somehow
managed
to
suggest
that
Americans
are
required
to
show
identification
to
eat
at
restaurants,
apparently
having
absorbed
the
president’s
own
legendary
confusion
about
everyday
commerce.
He
announced
the
DOJ
was
coming
for
journalists
who
published
leaked
information,
which…
had
strong
“Attorney
General
sizzle
reel”
energy.
He
got
into
a
shouting
match
with
Senator
Van
Hollen
during
Senate
testimony.
He
has
spent
months
trying
to
insulate
DOJ
lawyers
from
state
bar
investigations,
which,
given
that
he
is
now
himself
on
the
receiving
end
of
a
New
York
bar
complaint
over
the
Abrego
Garcia
prosecution,
is
a
policy
with
obvious
personal
appeal.
And
through
it
all
he
has
projected
the
wide-eyed
sincerity
of
a
man
who
definitely
believes
everything
he
is
saying
and
is
not
at
all
performing
for
an
audience
of
one.
If
what
we’ve
seen
so
far
was
the
audition,
the
permanent
run
is
going
to
be
quite
the
ride.
Buckle
up.
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