Todd Blanche Must Be Held Accountable for Pattern of Serious Ethical Misconduct
June 22, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers Defending American Democracy and a group of 101 former federal and state judges formally filed a comprehensive complaint in a letter to the New York State Bar, which includes a request to open a professional responsibility investigation into acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The letter states that Blanche has not only violated his oath to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the Constitution, he has abused the DOJ’s investigative and prosecutorial powers for political retribution, failed to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and orchestrated a slush fund to compensate Jan. 6 rioters and others.
Central to the complaint is Blanche’s continued day-to-day responsibility over the Epstein Files, where his former personal client, Donald Trump, is referenced in more than 5300 files. Blanche oversaw the questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and co-conspirator before she was suddenly transferred to a minimum-security prison, going against Bureau of Prison policy for sex offenders. Time and again, acting AG Blanche has prioritized Donald Trump’s personal agenda over the non-partisan integrity demanded by his oath of office.
“Blanche’s central role in the Department’s response to the EFTA failed to meet his expectations of competent and diligent representation of the United States, was burdened by his own conflicts of interest, and reflected adversely on his fitness as an attorney,” the letter states.
The letter also calls for an investigation into Blanche’s participation in the recent settlement agreement that would have created a $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization slush fund. As explained in the letter, acting Attorney General Blanche and the DOJ never contested President Trump’s claims and never even made an appearance before the court before settling Trump v. IRS in favor of Trump. This preferential treatment of Trump raises serious questions about Blanche, who swore as Attorney General that he would cease representation of his former client and testified to Congress that he would not violate ethical obligations at the DOJ.
The terms of the settlement negotiated by Blanche also gave President Trump and his family an extraordinary release of tax liability and liability for other legal claims by the United States. After receiving strong criticism, Blanche has told Congress that the slush fund ‘is not going forward’ but has declined to rescind his order directing its establishment or to provide a sworn statement to a federal court confirming that it will not be implemented. And his unprecedented general release of claims known or unknown against Trump, his family, and organizations remains in place.
Amb. Norm Eisen (ret.), co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, said, “The office of Attorney General demands independence, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to the rule of law. Todd Blanche has spent the last year and a half demonstrating loyalty to one man: Donald Trump. From his handling of the Epstein files to his willingness to abuse the power of the DOJ for political retribution, Blanche’s conduct raises grave ethical questions that merit investigation. A lawyer whose own professional conduct is clouded by such serious concerns cannot credibly serve as the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer.”
“The damage over these many months to the once esteemed Department of Justice has been incalculable,” said Scott Harshbarger, a former two-term MA Attorney General and the chair and co-founder of Lawyers Defending American Democracy. “The Department of Justice is the nation’s highest law enforcement office, with 40 separate organizations, including the FBI and DEA, field offices in 50 states, and more than 115,000 employees. Historically, it was an honor to serve in the Department and lawyers did so with integrity and strict adherence to the Rules of Professional Conduct. In light of the importance of the Department’s role in national law enforcement, we hope that the Attorney Grievance Committee recognizes it has an added responsibility to undertake an investigation of Mr. Blanche.”
The full letter is available here.
A fact sheet on the letter is available here.
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Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.
Lawyers Defending American Democracy is a coalition of lawyers united in the defense of our democracy and committed to galvanizing the legal profession – and the public – to protect the rule of law.
