I’m not a lawyer nor am I anything close to an expert in grounds for disbarment. But I can recognize a good argument when I see one. And, ladies and gentlemen, the lengthy ethics complaint that seeks Todd Blanche’s disbarment or discipline action in New York, is darned persuasive to me.
The complaint starts with Trump’s slush fund and Blanche-authored lifetime pass to cheat the IRS. You don’t need to understand legalese to know that this is not the kind of behavior you want from an acting attorney general, much less a confirmed AG: “Among other things, Mr. Blanche failed to competently and diligently represent the United States; participated in a matter he previously participated in while in private practice; attempted to assist his former client and current boss, President Trump, to skirt legal limits on his ability to end a tax audit against him, his family, and his companies and achieve a global release of all claims the United States had or could have had against them; and personally and knowingly through the acts of another engaged in conduct that was deceptive and prejudicial to the administration of justice.”
There’s plenty more about that in the complaint, including the allegation that Blanche has “financial interests” in the IRS “Settlement Agreement” (slush fund) and “AG Order” (cheating pass).
Starting on Page 41, the complaint moves on to the vindictive prosecutions of James Comey and Kilmar Ábrego García: “Mr. Blanche has made it abundantly clear that his primary loyalties lie with President Trump and not with the fair and even-handed administration of justice. This vision was crystallized in his first public remarks as Acting Attorney General, in which he responded to a question about prosecution of President Trump’s political enemies by saying “[i]t is true that some of [the Department’s cases] involve men, women, and entities that the president has in the past has had issues with and that believe should be investigated. That is his right and, indeed, it is his duty to do that. …”
After many disturbing details about Blanche’s unprofessional conduct in those cases, the complaint moves on to his cover-up behavior with the Epstein files (Page 52). There’s Blanche’s obvious role as Trump fixer, as opposed to a public servant, despite getting paid from U.S. tax dollars, as we have reported and as was confirmed in the jaw-dropping report in the New York Times.
Finally, there’s this stomach-churning information about what was improperly redacted in the release of the Epstein files:
- The identity of the person who wrote to Epstein in 2014, “Thank you for a fun night… Your littlest girl was a little naughty.”
- The identity of the person who wrote to Epstein in 2017 that, “I met [REDACTED] today. She is like Lolita from Nabokov , femme miniature… So now I should send you her type of candidates only?”
- The identity of the person to whom Epstein wrote in 2009, “where are you? Are you ok I loved the torture video.
The complaint was signed by lawyers from Democracy Defenders Fund and Lawyers Defending American Democracy, including the former attorney general of Massachusetts. By my count, 103 former judges, from east to west and points in between, also signed.
They can’t all be wrong.
