Todd Blanche Under Fire as Judges Seek Ethics Review

0:00Welcome to a special edition of Legal AF as the group's array against Todd Blanche being confirmed as the Attorney General takes shape. And as we're on and just past day two of his confirmation hearing with live witnesses for and mainly against Todd Blanche, I wanted to also update everyone on things that are working behind the scenes, such as bar complaints that have been filed against Todd Blanche in New York at the Appellate Division First Department. I'm a member of that one, too. And the reference to that Barr complaint by Judge Williams in her scathing 56-page decision concerning whether fraud on the court or deceit or bad faith had been perpetrated in her courtroom, whether she had been used by Donald Trump and Todd Blanche to create the anti-weaponization settlement fund and a super pardon for Trump and his family.

1:06or not. And at the same time, the Department of Justice alum have come forward. A thousand and one of them have signed a letter that was addressed to the two ranking members of the Judiciary Committee, Grassley and Durbin, outlining an excruciating detail, much the way the 60-page-plus grievance did, the reasons why Todd Blanche is unfit to be the Attorney General of the United States. I thought I'd bring in sort of representatives of both groups here. So I want to bring in Lauren Stiller-Ricklein and John Montgomery, representing lawyers defending American Democracy, who along with another group filed the bar complaint against Todd Blanche in New York, and our friend and colleague Lisa Graves, who wears many hats, including a Legal AF anchor, but here is a proud alum of the Department of Justice and signed her letter along with a thousand other people to try to move the needle with Durbin and Grassley.

2:16So first let me welcome Lisa and John and Lauren to Legal AF. Thank you. Great to be here. Thank you for having us. Why don't we kick it off just to update the story with the testimony in the last 24 hours from Liz Oyer. She's now known as the pardon lawyer, Liz Oyer. But, you know, once proudly served in the Department of Justice as a just a career apolitical pardon attorney, making recommendations to whoever's sitting in the Oval Office about what pardons they should be granting. And she was dumped and fired because she refused to rubber stamp what Donald Trump wanted. And she was canned by Todd Blanch.

2:58And she had some searing testimony today, riveting testimony today as a witness brought by the Senate Democrats. And I thought we'd play a couple of clips of her and then get into where we are with your respective filings and submissions. Let's play the clips. Earlier this week, a federal judge found that Mr. Blanche personally misled this Congress about the department's settlement agreement with President Trump. To the American public, it looks like Mr. Blanche is running DOJ as Donald Trump's personal law firm. He is using law enforcement powers to pursue petty grudges harbored by the president.

3:38These pointless vendettas are wasting our scarce resources and destroying DOJ's credibility. Mr. Blanche has repeatedly placed President Trump's interests ahead of the interests of the country. The collusive settlement agreement is a perfect example. It protects the entire Trump family and all of their businesses from any investigation or audit forever. It gives away nearly$2 billion of our money for no reason at all. It is a windfall for the president and his allies at the expense of the American people. A court found that signing this agreement was a betrayal of Mr. Blanche's duty to zealously represent the interests of the United States.

4:28That is the most basic obligation of the Attorney General. Mr. Blanche said yesterday that the settlement fund is dead. It is not. That is contract law 101. Mr. Trump or his sons could seek to enforce it at any time. Two days after Mr. Blanche was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General, he fired me from my position as the department's career pardon attorney. I declined to rubber stamp a political favor for a friend of the president and it cost me my job. Mr. Blanche's office had asked me to recommend restoring the gun ownership rights of a convicted domestic abuser. I raised concerns about public safety, but Mr.

5:13Blanche's staff pressured me to go along anyway. I did not. Domestic violence is the leading type of homicide among women. When a domestic abuser is armed, his victim is five times more likely to be killed. But because this particular domestic abuser had a personal relationship with the president, Mr. Blanche's staff asked me to set aside my concerns. When I wouldn't, Mr. Blanche fired me within hours. He then took extraordinary measures to silence me. He sent U.S. Marshals to my home in an effort to prevent me from speaking with members of Congress. Yeah, I think that guy I was Mel Gibson. He's the only person in America that lost their job over Mel Gibson's gun rights.

6:01But having said that, with a powerful presentation, in a way that even individual senators 10 minutes at a clip can't do, what I said, I don't know if you guys heard it, what I told the senators and their staff to do, and I know they watch the show, is that all you got to do is take the grievance complaint filed by lawyers defending American democracy, single spaced that runs 73 pages and or take the letter written by the DOJ alum and just use that and track that and make all those points. So what I want to start, let me start out with the Lawyers Defending American Democracy with John and Lauren.

6:46How did that letter come together? How did you get 101 former state and federal judges, are they federal judges or are they all state judges? Both. Both. To come together for that. And what was your purpose in filing that bar complaint with the regulator of Todd Blanche's law license? John, do you want to kick it off? Sure. So we, since 2020, Michael, we have been regularly filing ethics complaints that we considered to be part of the assault that we've witnessed now for a number of years on the rule of law. We were particularly active in ethics complaints, substantial complaints against lawyers like Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Ken Chesbro, Jeffrey Clark, and others.

7:46And we have continued that all for the purpose of helping to protect the rule of law. Our view is that accountability is integral to the rule of law. And we, you know, regrettably are seeing, you know, many lawyers who are deviating from the ethical standards that are necessary to actually comply with their oaths as lawyers and with the rules of professional responsibility. So that leads us to this particular complaint. We've worked sometimes by ourselves and often, you know, actively with other groups and particularly with Democracy Defenders Fund. And we did so on this complaint and then collaborated with them on the solicitation of others who might be interested in signing the complaint.

8:48And in this particular case, you know, we have, I guess it's, Lauren, 101 former judges, state and federal judges. So that's a long-winded answer to your question, for which I apologize, but I hope that's complete. That's what makes these videos. Let me read from just one portion of the Barr complaint that's been filed. It says, Mr. Blanche, it's on page four, Mr. Blanche's participation in President Trump versus the Internal Revenue Service was fundamentally incompatible with his ethical obligations under the New York Rules of Professional Responsibility. Among other things, Mr. Blanche failed to competently and diligently represent the United States, participated in a matter he previously participated in while in private practice, attempted to assist his former client and current boss, President Trump, to skirt legal limits on his ability to end a tax audit against him, his family, and his companies, and achieve a global release of all claims the United States had or could have had against them.

9:59and personally and knowingly through the acts of another engaged in conduct that was deceptive and prejudicial to the administration of law. And then it goes on for 70 pages in detailing it. My first question for Lauren is, has the first department appellate division acknowledged the receipt of it? Have they opened up an investigation? Where do you think you are in the process? Well, where we are in the process is we just learned literally a couple of hours ago that there is not going to be an investigation. And apparently we are invited to submit a complaint before the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Department of Justice if we think that we would like this pursued.

10:52So we have not had a chance to really digest this letter, nor we're meeting tomorrow to talk to our colleagues at Democracy Defenders Fund. So it's premature to say what we will do at this point. But needless to say, it is extraordinarily disappointing that the state disciplinary authority responsible for lawyers' conduct and accountability to follow the rules of professional conduct that every single lawyer in this country is supposed to follow, that they are saying, if you have a complaint about Todd Blanche, take it to Todd Blanche. That's what seems to stand at the moment. Well, we're breaking news, whether it's good or bad here.

11:37I mean, look, you know, I've seen bar, I've seen like the Florida bar take a similar position as it related to Pam Bondi. I'm also a member of the Florida bar and I chastise them for doing that. There's nothing in the bar rules that says if you're in federal service, you are immune from having a bar regulator look into your ethical conduct or not. Other states have allowed, the D.C. bar has allowed government lawyers to be investigated in real time. And I had hoped that the Appellate Division First Department would have said, no, we're not going to do what Todd Blanche has announced he wants us to do, which he's already said as he's suing bar associations, that, oh, no, it should start with the Department of Justice and our own internal analysis before.

12:32I mean, have they said go there first and then failing that, come back? It doesn't look like that. No, no, no. It doesn't say that at all. And not to get, I don't want to get too far into the weeds here, Michael, but we do have a congressional statute that makes it clear that Department of Justice lawyers, including expressly the Attorney General of the United States, is subject to the bar rules of each DOJ lawyer's state or jurisdiction of admission. Well, that's a great answer. So you guys got to take an appeal. They're wrong. As was Florida. And we will certainly be evaluating any options that we might have, because this is appalling.

13:28The notion, as Lauren just said, that Todd Blanch is going to seriously evaluate his own conduct, which he's already, you know, he's already ignored the ethical standards that apply to him. So it's hard to imagine that his own department is going to take a different view. I mean, if you think about what our complaint is about, or what Judge Williams' complaint is about, it's about conflicts of interest. the notion that the Department of Justice is going to investigate Todd Blanche, you know, it just is a massive conflict of interest. So what are they going to do? So just playing this out, Judge Williams, in her order, I'll read it, have it here, have it here on the floor.

14:22It says, directing the clerk of the court, the Southern District of Florida, to send a copy of the order to the State Bar of New York, it's really the Appellate Division First Department, of which Acting Attorney General Blanche is a member with his bar license number, and then notes that disciplinary proceedings are currently ongoing, referencing you. It says in footnote 70 of her order, ethics complaints have been filed in New York and the District of Columbia against Acting Attorney General Blanche and Associate Attorney General Woodward. See, letter to Attorney Grievance Committee, right? Ethics complaint.

15:03And there it is. So now what? They're going to tell the judge, sorry, you've sent it to the wrong place? You know, we of course don't know, to be fair, whether the Grievance Committee in the first Department has received that referral? Presumably not. We don't know whether they have, they're anticipating receipt of that referral, but the letter that we've received today is incredibly disrespectful to Judge Williams and the Federal District Court in Florida. Yeah. And when they receive that referral. Good question. What are they going to do? And now I wonder, we'll play the clip here. Now I wonder if Blanche knew he had this in his back pocket when he responded to Senator Blumenthal about the the bar complaint and Judge Williams referral.

16:05Let's play that clip. The judge in Florida referred your misconduct. She concluded that there was misconduct and misrepresentation and improper purpose in that legal action to the bar of new york for potential discipline including losing your law license i know you disagree with the result of the ruling has that kind of referral ever happened by a federal judge for an attorney general of the united states can you i don't know but i'll tell you something that judge never asked us to respond she never gave us an opportunity to respond to anything and she didn't refer me she just asked that a copy of the order be provided the new york bar because there are several activist groups that have filed complaints against me so so listen i as i said earlier i i think anybody on this committee especially the lawyers that have practiced can read that opinion and reach their own conclusions but i very much disagree um with with the judges insinuations about me.

17:11And, and we're going to do what we can to make that right. You know, where Blanche is like, Oh, it's all, you know, Oh, it's all wrong. I don't have an active bar complaint against me. I wonder if somebody tipped him off since you said you just got in the last few hours. And I wonder if the fixes in here in Donald Trump's backyard at home state. That that's fascinating. The thing about it that I think is so upsetting. Well, everything about it is upsetting. But you also have to ask the question, you know, the DOJ has proposed a new rule in which they're trying to say that all any lawyer that works for the Department of Justice, where if you have any kind of grievance or complaint against their behavior, you cannot take it to the same state authorities that every state has created to do lawyer discipline.

18:03you have to send it first to us for our conflict of interest ridden evaluation of their behavior. The idea now that comes to mind, the worry that comes to mind is, is what New York is doing simply another example of capitulating in advance? Like there was this proposed rule. It has not yet been put in effect, but is New York saying, oh, well, we better capitulate in advance because we don't want to get in trouble. We don't want anything bad to happen to us. So, you know, at every level, at every level, this should be a concern to every lawyer in this country because it's essentially stacking the deck and treating one class of lawyers completely differently than every other lawyer in this country has every right and expectation to know that that's how problems are resolved in the profession.

18:57Well, the grievance committee is certainly not lawyers defending American democracy. Let me turn to Lisa Graves, who, besides spending her entire career looking at corruption in the court system up to the United States Supreme Court, also has the distinction of being one of the only people, I don't know, it's probably a small handful, to serve all three branches of government, including the Department of Justice, and signed the letter. So talk about the letter that you participated in that also detailed in excruciating detail what Chuck Schumer has referred to as Todd Blanche's rap sheet and sent it to the ranking members on the Judiciary Committee.

19:45Talk about that process, and then what do you think is going to come out of that? Well, I was proud to sign that letter that was organized by the Lawyer Connection that that letter was signed by the Justice Connection, pardon me. That letter was signed by more than 1 ,000 alums of the Justice Department, including people who served under Republican and Democratic presidents at the highest levels of the department. And together, we've come together for this letter. We may not agree on a million other things, but we agree on this. Todd Blanche is the wrong man to lead the Justice Department. He's demonstrated that he's the wrong person to lead the Justice Department through his actions.

20:29Whatever his testimony has been over these last two days, and the testimony against him, which I've watched closely, does not exonerate him. In fact, it further underscores his unfitness for the position of public trust that he's been nominated to, in addition to the position of public trust he now holds as acting attorney general, having been confirmed previously as the deputy attorney general by this Republican-led Congress at Trump's urging. And so I think I would say certainly on my part, I joined that letter with love for the mission of the Justice Department to serve all Americans. When I used to walk into the Justice Department, when I was deputy assistant attorney general over there in the Office of Legal policy and policy development and before, I felt a tremendous amount of pride and honor to walk through those doors on Pennsylvania Avenue, where it's engraved, the place of justice is a hallowed place.

21:27I believe that deeply. I think most people who work there believe that deeply. And it's been tarnished and trashed by Todd Blanche, who is treating the Justice Department as basically the private law firm, law firm for Donald Trump for pursuing his childish, petty political vendettas, as well as dismantling fundamental areas of mission of the Justice Department. And I'm glad to be on this conversation today with Lauren and John and you. You know, the notion that the Justice Department can simply issue a regulation in defiance of the McDade Amendment, which is 28 U.S.C. 530B, which is the law, the statute John is referring to that applies to all the lawyers.

22:14And it says that the lawyers of the Justice Department are subject to the rules of the bars to which they belong and all states. And as Lauren was saying, we simply cannot have a situation in which the most powerful lawyers in the country are subject to no rules other than their own, especially when we know what's happened. It's not just that Todd Blanche subserviently fired Liz Oyer from her career role as a pardon attorney. He decimated the very office, the Office of Professional Responsibility, that supposedly we're supposed to seek, or people are supposed to seek review of. Todd Blanche has really been ruling the Justice Department, even even with Pam Bondi at the top.

23:00He has been creating a culture of fear for employees. It's been documented by a number of people who've left, who've described the culture there. It is not a culture in which the traditional process of people setting aside their political views, setting aside their religious views in order to do the work of the American people, to put the Constitution first, that is not the culture. The culture is what Donald Trump wants. whatever he wants and the command to jump, the response is how high. And we know that in part from Todd Blanche's first press conference as acting attorney general, when he was asked how he would respond to any pressure from Trump to pursue his perceived political enemies.

23:48And Blanche said in so many words, he doesn't worry about that at all. The only thing he worries about is doing enough to pursue what Donald Trump wants him to pursue, which is truly dangerous. It's a longstanding part of Western civilization, of American law, that you have to have someone guarding the guardians. You cannot have unchecked power. And we know that unchecked power is corrupting. It is inherently corrupting. We need to have the bars involved in responding to complaints like the complaint from Judge Williams that you referenced, Michael, responding to the complaint by LDAD and other lawyers to hold Todd Blanch accountable.

24:30And I'll just say this, we know that's one of the things they fear because we know that people have faced accountability for their actions like John Eastman being disbarred in California for his role in trying to subvert the 2020 election. We know that Jeffrey Clark, who is attempting to do the same, has been facing bar proceedings in the District of Columbia, we know that John Mitchell, the former attorney general for Richard Nixon, faced not just criminal charges and imprisonment, but was in fact disbarred. And disbarment is the one thing that Donald Trump cannot repair through his untrammeled pardon power, which I believe is too far.

25:14He may be able to pardon Todd Blanche if the case arises that he decides to do so, but he cannot unilaterally prevent these bars from holding the people of the Justice Department accountable. And I hope that the state bars will rise to the challenge and ensure that we have ethical lawyers and not people willing to, in the case of Todd Blanche, put the interests of Donald Trump ahead of the interests of his real client, the United States of America, and we the people. Yeah, look, I mean, he doesn't, The reality is there's no requirement that the attorney general be a lawyer. But if they're going to be a lawyer and not voluntarily give up their bar license, then they should be regulated.

25:58Otherwise, what's the purpose of somebody? I'm sure he's paying his dues. I'm sure he wants to keep his bar license in good standing. I'm sure he didn't go inactive. or I'm sure he's doing his CLEs or getting some sort of exemption from doing them so he can return on the revolving door back to private practice what he's all done. So it's a valuable thing to him. Then therefore he should have to pay the price. Look, if Donald Trump wants to put his plumber or his pool repairman as attorney general and he can get the votes and apparently he can get anybody confirmed, then avoid this whole problem and don't put a lawyer in.

26:35But if you're a lawyer, This is what I always tell clients of mine. They're like, well, I'm a lawyer. I'm a lawyer CPA and I don't really practice law. Well, then you still have your law license? Right. What you just did violated your law license. So you're going to lose it. You don't have to have it. It's a privilege. But if you have it, then you need to be regulated for it. I mean, grievance committee, wake up. I don't know what is going on in my state. It's an embarrassment. Two of my states have now rejected regulating standing up to Donald Trump. And before I turn back to Lauren, let me just read just the table of contents in Lawyers Defending American Democracy's bar complaint.

27:18That's all I got to do. So this is all they should have done with one of their 10-minute blocks for the senators today. Potential violations of the New York rules of professional responsibility. Failure to defend the United States and President Trump versus IRS. entering into a baseless and flawed settlement agreement and the creation of an unlawful anti-weaponization fund and an unprecedented general release of liability to Trump and his family. Conflicts of interest, participation in prior matters worked on while in private practice, personal financial interests, personal loyalty and prejudice and bias.

27:56James Comey, but everything going after the seashell indictment. Ilmer Armando Abrego Garcia, a judge ruled vindictive prosecution in that case. I haven't even turned to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the cover up, the cover up of the cover up, right? Right. Failure to timely comply with disclosure requirements, unlawful withholding and redacting of documents, release of sensitive victim information, failure to publish and justify failure to publish justification of redactions as required by law. Judge Sullivan is going to have something to say about that. Conflicts of interest, dishonest and deceitful statements and conduct.

28:38I mean, any one of those things in any other era would be a disqualifier. Orin, why isn't it today? You know, one of the things I talk about a lot in this role is the fact that I don't think people understand enough just how alone we are right now from a law enforcement perspective. We do not have a functioning federal government protecting people who live in this country from violations of law. We have a president that will pardon anybody who commits a crime that looks like things he's been accused of committing, just to show how unimportant those things are. So if you've embezzled, if you've been convicted of stealing other people's money, I mean, the list is very long, but they all get pardoned.

29:34January 6 rioters get pardoned and maybe get money. The list is as long as what you just read. There is nobody looking out for us right now. If we have a complaint that normally we could appeal to a specific part of the Department of Justice, it doesn't matter anymore because they won't care and they won't pay attention. That's what Congress ought to be focusing on as they evaluate whether he is fit to be attorney general. And that's what the public needs to focus on when they think there's recourse in some respects for a federal crime that may have been committed and there is nobody there. So I think that's one of the biggest tragedies.

30:17And, you know, it's kind of funny when you mentioned the Epstein files. what the other part about this that i i maybe i missed it but i yet have seen any coverage in the hearings of the you know the whole thing with the puppies in the yoga for johan maxwell like oh no booker did it booker oh he did ask booker did it okay well i'm glad to hear that because i haven't seen coverage of that he said he said i don't have the clip here but i had booker on with me last night on Legal AF and Cory Booker and the clip went viral off of it. Cory Booker said to him, you transferred her to a lower minimum security as a payback for the testimony, right, that you obtained from her.

31:01And he said, no, he went through a whole thing about security issues and worried about the security of Ghislaine Maxwell. He says, you care about the security of a convicted child sex trafficker, but you don't care. She pointed to the 10 Epstein survivors in the room, but you don't care at all about their security and their dignity in the process. And how is that not on itself disqualifying? There's nothing. There was nothing in this list that makes him fit to be in this role. And yet here we are. And here's a question, Maybe this is for John. You know, long bar experience that you have, you know.

31:49So these people, they know how time works, right? They know how a clock and calendar work. And they know that every day they're closer to the end of the administration than the beginning. And they know that the Democrats are likely to take the gavels in the Senate, certainly in the House. and what happens to administrations and lawyers, they know what happened in the first administration. How many lawyers for Trump were indicted, convicted, disbarred, or fined are all four. And yet they act with this impunity as if they won't, that the bell tolling will not be tolling for thee in six months or eight months or a year's time.

32:39How is that possible? You know, I have thought about this a number of times, and I think it is just a reflection on how thoroughly Donald Trump and Trumpism has been able to capture people who are, ambitious, were prepared to sacrifice whatever standards of decency and morality they have in the interests of pursuing some goal of generally power and prominence. And once you're trapped, you can't get out. And so all I can think of is that people like Todd Blanche say, you know, we hope to be able to live to fight another day, you know, if the time comes where we have to defend ourselves. He's going to get impeached.