The Justice Department’s former top ethics official is outraged over Attorney General Todd Blanche’s growing presence on the campaign trail.
Joseph Tirrell, who was pushed out as ethics czar by former Attorney General Pam Bondi, told NBC News that Blanche’s appearances at Republican campaign events reflects a fundamental change in how the department operates under President Donald Trump — adding that independence from the White House is no longer even pretended.
Blanche has made a string of political appearances in recent weeks – flipping pork sandwiches at the Iowa State Fair, headlining a rally at a Nassau County police academy for New York’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, addressing the GOP’s midterm convention, and standing alongside Trump at a campaign rally in North Carolina.
The Justice Department says the appearances are made in Blanche’s “personal capacity” and have been cleared by department ethics officials, with his travel reimbursed under federal rules.
Tirrell isn’t buying the distinction. Writing for the group Justice Connection, he argued that Blanche’s convention speech created an improper appearance regardless of how it was formally categorized. “The question is not merely whether Blanche crossed a technical line,” Tirrell wrote. “It is whether his appearance made federal law enforcement look like an arm of a partisan campaign. Even if he intended to speak privately, the public saw the attorney general standing on that stage discussing federal law enforcement.”
In a follow-up interview, Tirrell described what he called a “seismic shift” inside the department during Trump’s second term.
“Clearly this administration wants to show that there is no independent DOJ, that the DOJ and the White House are in lockstep,” he said. “It’s been an incredible break with tradition.”
Tirrell also disputed the notion that this is simply a difference in degree from past administrations. He said attorneys general have historically at least paid rhetorical respect to the principle of separation from the White House, even when they fell short of it.
“On rare occasions, some may have given it lip service, but at least they gave it lip service,” he said, adding that the current department is “not even giving it the appearance of propriety – they’re just going over the line regularly.”
Other former officials share his concerns. Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general, said none of the 14 people who’ve held the attorney general post since 1981 would have considered appearing at a political rally.
Peter Carr, a former longtime department spokesperson, said he’d “never seen an attorney general that is so willing to use his position in a blatantly partisan way.”
Former Attorney General Eric Holder also said Blanche’s convention appearance “runs counter to established practice” and “calls into question the real motivation behind his enforcement decisions.”
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