司法部第二号官员托德·布兰奇曾抨击联邦检察官在政治敌意的驱使下，针对一名没有犯罪的被告所做的精心策划的“报复性”努力。
在那种情况下，他当时是在为他的委托人说话-唐纳德·特朗普.
在2023年的一份法庭文件中，该文件试图驳回针对特朗普的联邦案件，因为他努力颠覆他2020年选举失利时任川普辩护律师的布兰奇写道，“有偏见的检察官”做出了努力，“不顾证据，而不是基于证据提出指控”，包括“一名检察官在电视采访中预测调查，违反了DOJ规则和道德规范。”
他还引用了一些报道，称时任司法部长梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland)在起诉川普时感到“进退两难”，布兰奇说，此前总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)“向DOJ施压，要求在此案中进行赤裸裸的政治起诉。”
布兰奇写道:“拜登的公开声明以及《纽约时报》和《华盛顿邮报》根据调查参与者的泄密所做的报道等都证明了这些行为，需要进一步调查并驳回起诉。”
然而，在周五接受福克斯新闻频道的电视采访时，布兰奇采取了不同的立场，他为司法部寻求起诉特朗普总统的政敌之一、前美国联邦调查局导演的决定进行了辩护詹姆斯·科米.
针对科米涉嫌在2020年向国会撒谎的指控是在特朗普任命的一名检察官匆忙做出努力后提出的驳回建议职业检察官认定科米的行为不构成犯罪。否认指控的科米在起诉书后表示，“我对联邦司法系统非常有信心，我是无辜的，所以让我们进行审判。”
“这是一个案子——再说一遍，这不是凭空扯出来的，”布兰奇告诉福克斯新闻频道说。“它是由弗吉尼亚州亚历山大市的美国检察官办公室东区起诉的，人们可能会像许多人一样，通过查看起诉书和了解科米先生而有自己的看法，可能会对这项起诉感到不满，但正如所声称的那样，这些都是非常严重的罪行。”
对于司法部官员来说，在刑事案件完全判决之前就公开发表评论是不寻常的。
但是布兰奇、司法部长帕姆·邦迪和美国联邦调查局导演卡什·帕特尔自科米被起诉以来一直无视这些规范公开欢呼消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，特朗普总统上周迫使弗吉尼亚州东区的美国检察官埃里克·西伯特(Erik Siebert)辞职，他拒绝对科米和纽约司法部长莱蒂夏·詹姆斯(Letitia James)提出指控。
特朗普随后在社交媒体上发文，敦促司法部长帕姆·邦迪“立即”起诉科米和其他人。
“我们不能再拖延了，这会损害我们的声誉和信誉。他们弹劾了我两次，并起诉了我(5次!)，没事找事。正义必须得到伸张，现在!!!"特朗普写道。
布兰奇在2023年的动议中引用了《纽约时报》和《华盛顿邮报》的报道，这些报道描述了白宫官员之间的私下谈话，其中表达了对司法部未能迅速采取行动解决他们认为特朗普明显犯罪行为的担忧，包括他试图推翻2020年大选的努力以及他涉嫌拥有高度机密的记录在离开白宫后，由于DOJ长期以来禁止起诉在任总统的政策，这两起案件都在11月的选举后被撤销。
然而，在公开场合，拜登总统和其他白宫官员对特朗普的公开评论大多很克制，说会不合适侵犯DOJ的独立。
监督特朗普选举干预案的法官、美国地区法官坦尼娅·楚特坎(Tanya Chutkan)表示，驳回布兰奇的动议驳回指控，称布兰奇的解释是基于对相关文章的“误读”，大多数事实表明司法部在对前总统展开刑事调查时非常谨慎。
当他周五在福克斯新闻频道接受采访时被问及，基于特朗普的公开评论和他在社交媒体帖子中的公开指示，他本人是否感到有压力去追求科米时，布兰奇说他没有。
“我不认为这是压力，”布兰奇说。“当总统说他正在阅读一些东西，或者他希望我们进行调查，他希望我们做好自己的工作时，司法部长并不认为这是压力。我不认为这是压力。作为一名每天都在为美国人民工作的总统，我认为这是为了确保我们做好自己的工作。”
Israel-Gaza live updates: Hamas receives Trump plan to end war, official says
Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department, once assailed what he described as a calculated and "vindictive" effort by federal prosecutors driven by political animus to target a defendant who had committed no crimes.
In that instance, he was speaking for his client at the time --Donald Trump.
In a 2023 court filing seeking to dismiss the federal case brought against Trump for his efforts tosubvert his 2020 election loss, Blanche -- who was then Trump's defense attorney -- wrote of an endeavor by "biased prosecutors" who "pursued charges despite the evidence, rather than based on it," including "one prosecutor violating DOJ rules and ethical norms by forecasting the investigation in a television interview."
He further cited reports that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland felt "boxed in" at the time to indict Trump afte, Blanche said, President Joe Biden "pressured DOJ to pursue the nakedly political indictment in this case."
"These actions, which are demonstrated by, inter alia, Biden's public statements and reports from the New York Times and Washington Post based on leaks from participants in the investigation, require further inquiry and dismissal of the indictment," Blanche wrote.
On Friday in a television interview with Fox News, however, Blanche took a differing position as he defended the Justice Department's decision to seek an indictment against one of President Trump's political foes, former FBI DirectorJames Comey.
The charges against Comey for allegedly lying to Congress in testimony in 2020, came following a rushed effort by a Trump-installed prosecutor whodismissed the recommendationsof career prosecutors who had determined that Comey's conduct did not amount to a crime.Comey, who has denied the charges, said following the indictment, "I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I am innocent, so let's have a trial."
"This was a case -- again, this is not just pulled out of thin air," Blanche said told Fox News. "It was prosecuted by the Eastern District of U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria, Virginia, and folks may have their view from looking at the indictment and from knowing Mr. Comey, like a lot of these folks do, and might not be happy with this indictment, but as alleged, these are very serious crimes."
It is unusual for Justice Department officials to comment publicly on a criminal case before it has been fully adjudicated.
But Blanche, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have disregarded such norms since Comey's indictment -- which has also beenpublicly cheeredby President Trump, who last week moved to force out the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, who had resisted bringing charges against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, sources told ABC News.
Trump then issued a social media post urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to move "now" to prosecute Comey and others.
"We can't delay any longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!" Trump wrote.
The reports from The New York Times and Washington Post that Blanche cited in his 2023 motion described private conversations among White House officials expressing concern over the Justice Department not moving quickly enough to address what they saw as clearly criminal conduct on Trump's part, both regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged possession ofhighly classified recordsafter leaving the White House, before both cases were dropped following November's election due to a long-standing DOJ policy barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
In public, however, President Biden and other White House officials were mostly restrained in their public comments about Trump, saying itwould be inappropriateto intrude on the DOJ's independence.
The judge overseeing Trump's election interference case, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan,denied Blanche's motionto dismiss the charges, saying Blanche's interpretation was based on a "misreading" of the articles in question, and that most of the facts pointed to a Justice Department that exercised great caution in even opening a criminal investigation of a former president.
When asked in his Friday interview on Fox News whether he himself felt pressured to pursue Comey based on Trump's public comments and his overt instructions in his social media posts, Blanche said he did not.
"I don't take that as pressure,"Blanche said. "When the president says that he's reading things or that he wants us to do investigations and he wants us to do our job -- the attorney general does not take that as pressure. I don't take that as pressure. I take that as a president who is working every day for the American people and every day to make sure that we're doing our jobs."
