DOJ's Blanche says 'It's me' defending Trump team against probes

Rainier Harris and Tony Czuczka, Bloomberg News on Nov 8, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said any effort by Democratic lawmakers to investigate Donald Trump and his family is likely to fail, taking a defiant stance as the president’s political foes threaten a range of probes once they take control of Congress in January.

Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal defense lawyer, suggested he may use his power as head of the Department of Justice to blunt congressional probes. He cited a threat last week by Representative Robert Garcia, a California Democrat who’s in line to chair the House Oversight Committee, for Trump’s team to “lawyer up” for the planned investigations.

“If that’s what this new incoming leadership wants to do, we are ready,” Blanche said on Fox News Sunday. “And if you work in this administration, you have a lawyer. It’s me, and we will defend you.”

Blanche’s comments align with those from Trump on Saturday. The president blasted Democrats in a social media post for threatening to investigate his administration and Republican donors, saying he ordered the DOJ to launch its own probe against them.

Trump criticized Democrats for “threatening a lot of people” with impeachment, calling it “extortion” and saying people should be held accountable, though he didn’t specify what crimes he was referring to.

Asked on Fox News about Trump’s comments, Blanche didn’t specify the timing, scope or targets of any DOJ probe. But Democratic leaders “are not allowed to just go around threatening existing members of the administration, to go around threatening companies,” he said.

Investigations

Democrats, who achieved a decisive victory in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, campaigned in part on portraying Trump, his family and others in his orbit as fueling corruption in the government — accusations Trump and his team reject.

Potential targets for congressional probes include the Trump family’s stock trading and cryptocurrency ventures, private companies’ funding of Trump’s White House ballroom project, the administration’s immigration enforcement policies and the handling of files related to the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump, who has denied financial conflicts of interest, dismissed the Democrats’ allegations in an interview with CBS’s "60 Minutes."

“I devote almost no time to my net worth,” he said in an interview excerpt broadcast Sunday. “I have a lot of money and far more than I ever thought I’d have. And I guess it’s gone up. I don’t even know.”

The Trump Organization has previously said the president’s holdings are independently managed by third-party financial institutions that have control over all investment decisions, with trades executed through automated, model-based portfolios and direct indexing strategies. Trump, his family members and his company play no role in making transactions, and receive no advance notice of the trades, according to the company.

“I have a lot of cash,” Trump said in the CBS interview, recorded last week. “I had a lot of cash long before I came in here.”

Blanche has led the Justice Department since April, including in an acting capacity before the Senate confirmed him in August. He has overseen attempts to prosecute some of Trump’s perceived enemies, diverted resources to Trump’s immigration crackdown and launched a campaign against higher education institutions over admissions and diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Garcia, currently the top Democrat on the oversight committee, blasted Blanche for “threatening our committee,” which has a mandate “to conduct oversight of the executive and the administration.”

“All he wants to do is protect Donald Trump, is protect Donald Trump’s Cabinet and administration officials,” Garcia said on CNN’s "State of the Union." “That is not his job, I want to remind him.”

Blanche said Trump is “angry” about “these outright threats to come after people, to investigate people, to ruin their lives, to lawyer up.”

“This is something that the Democrats tried four years ago with President Trump and his family,” Blanche told Fox News. “It did not work then, and it won’t work now.”

_____

(With assistance from Sam Kim.)

_____