Attorney General Todd Blanche scrambled after being exposed for his hypocrisy for threatening to prosecute congressional Democrats who launch investigations into the Trump administration.
Donald Trump’s law enforcement official was confronted at a press conference on Thursday over comments by Democrats that he believes cross a criminal line, as the president himself has lobbed threats against perceived political opponents.
It comes after Blanche claimed on CNN on Sunday that what Democrats have been saying “are outright threats” while discussing planned oversight investigations.
When asked if the threats were a crime, Blanche said: “It depends on what’s said, so yes, there could be.”
Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a press conference at the Department of Justice on November 12, 2026.
When it was pointed out at the Thursday news conference that Trump has directly called for political foes to be prosecuted and jailed, Blanche began to stumble over his previous tough talk.
“What specifically have Democrats said that crosses a criminal line in your view that the president’s statements don’t, and what legal standard are you applying to distinguish the two?” a reporter asked him.
“Well, so it’s not just members of Congress; it’s anybody, anybody associated with any organization or in any Congress, a Republican or Democrat, you’re allowed; free speech is allowed; you could be critical of this administration,” Blanche stammered. “You can certainly be critical of me and critical of President Trump.”
“But there can come a point when a criticism becomes a threat and then when a threat becomes something criminal,” he rambled. “And what that point is, I never said that point has been crossed. I haven’t said that.”
The tongue-tied attorney general kept going with his explanation.
“It should worry Americans that four or five days after an election, the rhetoric is already at this point of unveiled or veiled threats against the administration, against people outside the administration,” Blanche said.
He cited people saying they would continue investigating officials even after they left office, before acknowledging: “That is not a crime, to say that. Nobody’s saying that’s a crime.”
“But it is fair to keep in mind that the way that these cases go, the way that threats cases go, is there are comments that are, of course, allowed; there are threats which can be allowed as well, but at some point it does become a crime,” he said.
Blanche then cited Title 18, the section of federal law dealing with federal crimes, saying there are “victims of the type of harassment that becomes criminal.”
He insisted he was “not trying to say anything sensational when I say that we should be careful.”
Blanche, the president’s former personal criminal attorney, with Trump.
Blanche repeated that there was nothing wrong with what Trump had said and the “communications back and forth.”
“The issue is when it becomes actually criminal,” he continued. “So if a threat becomes so somebody can’t do their job, unless they’re under a threat that they’re going to be in an improper way by Congress, there could be a problem there.”
He concluded that Americans “have to be careful” of the rhetoric seen since Election Night and as recently as Thursday.
Having won both chambers of Congress in the midterms, Democratic lawmakers are gearing up for a series of oversight investigations focused on the Trump administration, the president’s family and other associates who have made billions since Trump’s return to office.
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia has been telling the Trump administration to “lawyer up” as he prepares to take the gavel and launch investigations come January.
AL DRAGO/Al Drago, Reuters
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia issued a two-word warning on Election Night: “Lawyer Up.”
Blanche, the president’s former personal criminal defense attorney, did not on Tuesday address the president’s own specific threats against Democrats.
His remarks came the same day as Trump posted on Truth Social, “Will the Seditious Six ever be prosecuted? What they did was a great violation to our Country and its Constitution!”
It was an attack on the six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video last year reminding service members of their obligation to refuse illegal orders.
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