Blanche's Attorney General Audition Falls Flat

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Joining us now is Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California. He's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

[00:00:06]And Senator, you're a former federal prosecutor.

[00:00:09]What is wrong with this approach?

[00:00:13]Well, really everything. And it sounds a lot like what we saw in Virginia where a professional US attorney refused to try to bring charges against James Comey or Letitia James believing the evidence was insufficient. So they brought in this insurance lawyer who did it instead and then of course the case fell apart.

[00:00:32]Well, here you have a senior prosecutor essentially fired by Todd Blanche in the Justice Department because she doesn't think there's evidence to move forward with this investigation. So now they bring in this lawyer Joe di Genova who was a US attorney back when Reagan was president.

[00:00:50]Another one of the Trump criminal defense lawyers and election denier lawyer.

[00:00:56]So they're bringing him in to work with the other criminal defense lawyer Todd Blanche to try to further some conspiracy theory.

[00:01:04]One day they're set to interview witnesses about it. The next day no, they're going to bring them before the grand jury. The next day no, they're going to interview them instead of bringing them before the grand jury.

[00:01:15]It's chaos and this is the problem with trying to bring a case when there really isn't the evidence to support it. No matter how hard you try, no matter who you bring in, you run into a very basic problem and that is you can't bring a case with no evidence.

[00:01:31]And you certainly can't be successful with it even if you do.

[00:01:35]And I don't expect that Joseph di Genova is going to change any of that.

[00:01:39]This looks like Todd Blanche's campaign to get the job of Attorney General to move up from Acting Attorney General.

[00:01:48]Absolutely and I remember Lawrence interviewing Todd Blanche before his confirmation hearing and you know how those interviews go. They sit down with the senators that are going to vote on their confirmation and try to make the case. I really asked him one question that was the heart of my concern and that was what are you going to do the first time you're asked to do something immoral, unethical, or unprecedented?

[00:02:12]And his answer was, "I don't think I'll ever be put in that position." Well, he's been put in that position every day he's been in that office and sadly we have seen him go from one unethical act to another. The interview he gave recently where he said the American people should be happy that the president is directing the department to go after his enemies, that that he has a right and a duty to do that.

[00:02:40]No self-respecting prosecutor would ever suggest such a thing. Certainly not after Watergate when we really tried to build a wall between the White House and the Justice Department because of abuses that frankly were minor compared to what this president is doing. And it's just another illustration, this terrible decline of Todd Blanche from a respected assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York who if he were watching himself today would be appalled.

[00:03:08]Just one day after another, one big breach after another of his ethical code and this is where we end up.

[00:03:16]Senator Adam Schiff, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

[00:03:20]Thanks, Lawrence.