At a Monday event honoring law enforcement, Donald J. Trump lavished praise on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, saying that Blanche had kept him out of prison over the years. Blanche originally served as Trump's personal lawyer during the New York hush money trial, where Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to conceal an affair. Trump was later sentenced to an unconditional discharge, meaning no prison time and no fine.
After taking office, Trump appointed Blanche as deputy attorney general and subsequently elevated him to acting attorney general following the dismissal of Pam Bondi. But this is a weird brag to tell a roomful of law enforcement officers, don't you think? It's got that mob-boss feel to it.
"We have a man who's doing a great job," Trump said. "I'll tell you, I knew it because he kept me out of jail for years. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, he kept me out of jail."
"They would indict me left and right," he continued. "The crooked Democrats, you know, it's amazing. They impeach me. They indict me."
"And then when I get in office, if I say something like, well, maybe that should be looked into weaponization, I go through court cases," he insisted. I win them, but because there were fake indictments. But when I even mentioned, like I said the other day, that some of that stuff should be looked into. They said weaponization!"
"He's a terrible human being," he continued. Weaponization. They blame me for weaponization."
"Now we have law enforcement that loves our country, not law enforcement that's sick and dangerous," he added.
Beyond the hush money case, Trump faced three additional indictments. At the federal level, he was charged with unlawfully keeping classified documents and interfering with efforts to recover them, and separately with attempting to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. He also faced state-level charges in Georgia for allegedly working to reverse that state's 2020 election results. When Trump won the presidency a second time, federal prosecutors dropped their cases against him, consistent with the Justice Department's longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
And that's why Trump so desperately wanted to win the presidency again. It kept him out of jail, and now he feels he doesn't have to be held accountable for his past and present crimes. And now he's bragging about it, holding up his middle finger to law and order.
