Before choosing Todd Blanche to Help lead and manage the Department of Justice nowPresident Donald Trump was his client.
Blanche, which Trump filed Thursday From the Deputy Attorney General He assumed the position of acting US Attorney General, and emerged on the scene as the president’s representative in the criminal cases that consumed the four years between his first and second term.
Blanche, a former federal prosecutor and law firm partner, led Trump’s criminal defense team and represented the Republican in matters including his case. New York hush money casewhich ended with his conviction on 34 felony counts, and a pair of federal cases brought by private attorney Jack Smith, both of which were abandoned.
In a social media post, Trump described Blanche as a “very talented and respected legal mind.”
As Deputy Attorney General, Blanche was the Justice Department’s second-in-command.
Working under Attorney General Pam Bondi, he ran the day-to-day operations of the department and became one of its most vocal advocates and visible public faces. He oversaw the release of government files on Jeffrey Epstein, and appeared frequently on television news programs.
Here’s a look at Blanche’s career and his rise to running the Department of Justice:
Blanche, 51, attended Brooklyn Law School at night while working as a paralegal in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, graduating cum laude. Originally from the Denver suburbs, he completed his undergraduate studies at American University in Washington, DC
Blanche served as a law clerk to federal judges Denny Chin and Joseph Bianco, both now members of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and was a federal prosecutor for eight years in the same U.S. Attorney’s Office where he began as a paralegal.
He spent two years as co-chief of the office’s Violent Crimes Unit, where he oversaw nearly two dozen prosecutors and cases involving murder, kidnapping and other violent crimes.
Blanche left the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2014, working in the Manhattan office of the law firm WilmerHale. In September 2017, he moved to Cadwaladr, Wickersham & Taft LLP, where he was a partner in the white collar defense and investigations practice.
In preparation for his work in defending Trump, Blanche, the former president’s campaign chair, represented Paul ManafortIn 2019, he succeeded in dismissing the mortgage fraud case brought against him in the same New York court in which Trump was convicted.
Blanche said the case, brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office that later prosecuted Trump, was very similar to the case that landed Manafort in federal prison and therefore amounted to double jeopardy.
Blanche Cadwalader left in 2023, telling colleagues he was resigning to represent Trump. He joined the president’s defense team just before he was summoned in the secret money case.
In an email announcing his departure, he wrote: “I have been asked to represent Trump in the recently indicted DA case, and after much consideration/contemplation, I have decided that this is the best thing I can do and an opportunity I should not pass up.”
Despite his conviction, Trump emerged from the illicit money case impressed by Blanche’s tenacity, his willingness to spar with witnesses and judges, and the poise he displayed in speaking before television cameras.
Trump rewarded Blanche and another defense attorney, Emile Boff, with prominent roles at the Justice Department in his new administration, and last summer nominated Boff to be a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In addition to the hush money issue, Blanche represented Trump in the two cases brought by the special counsel 2020 election interference case In the Washington and Florida case in which the former president is accused Hoarding confidential documents At his home in Mar-a-Lago.
In both cases, Trump’s defense team, led by Blanche, successfully implemented a legal strategy that focused largely on delaying the cases until after the 2024 presidential election. When Trump won, Smith moved to abandon the cases, recognizing a long-standing Justice Department policy that sitting presidents cannot be indicted or tried while in office.
Ten days before Trump returned to office, Blanche sat next to him at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, home and appeared together by video as a Manhattan judge ruled the president-elect not to stand in the secret money case.
“The majority of the American people also agree that this case should not have been brought,” Blanche told the judge, citing the election results as her own arbiter.
“American voters have had a chance to see and decide for themselves whether this is the kind of case that should be brought,” Blanche said. “And they decided.”