Reporter Straight Up Asks Todd Blanche If He’s Becoming a ‘Political Actor’ With His MAGA Rally Appearances

Attorney General Todd Blanche took questions from the press on Wednesday after announcing a rare filing of a judicial misconduct complaint against federal district judges in Minnesota, who spoke to The New York Times about DOJ’s handling of ICE cases in the state.

Blanche’s surprise filing was roundly criticized by legal analysts, and one of the judges targeted by the DOJ released a statement slamming the complaint.

“As legal-ethics experts have confirmed, I was acting well within the ethical rules that apply to federal judges in speaking to the New York Times,” wrote Judge Patrick Schlitz, adding, “ Indeed, in February of this year, the Committee on Codes of Conduct issued an advisory opinion to emphasize that federal judges may ‘speak and write on core judiciary matters such as advocacy for the rule of law and judicial independence.’ That is exactly what I did.”

During the presser, a reporter asked Blanche how his appearances at MAGA political rallies – a major, but not unprecedented break from traditional AG norms — was any different from a judge allegedly offering a political take to a media outlet.

“Mr. Attorney General, you have engaged in partisan activities. You have appeared at political rallies, and it has long been the norm that the sitting Attorney General did not do that. Are you blurring the line by being a political actor in certain circumstances, and yet expecting something different from the bench, where they may have concerns about underlying conduct? Did you review any of the underlying conduct in Minnesota that they expressed concerns about?” Blanche was asked.

“Of course we review underlying conduct, and I completely disagree with the statements that judges made to the New York Times, by the way, about the conduct of our prosecutors. It’s not right. It’s not true,” Blanche replied, adding:

Yes, but the whole point of this is I’m not supposed to get into a factual battle, a factual back and forth with a sitting federal judge on a case in front of him or her. Of course not. And so that’s exactly why this process isn’t wrong. As far as what I do on my own time or when I speak about this administration, the great things we’re doing, the rules and the laws around what I’m allowed to do are, again, free for everybody to read.

I’m not in any way violating any rule or law, and every single thing I do outside of this building, and even some things inside this building, is reviewed and approved by an ethics official that has 17 years, 16 years’ experience in this space. And so I see the criticism. I go and I talk about how great it is that we’re bringing crime down, how great it is, the great things this president’s doing.

If Democrats want me to come and speak at their rally, they can just give me a call. I have the same thing to say to them that I say to any rally, which is that we’re fighting to make America safe again, and that every day we’re going back to the basics of law enforcement. We’re arresting bad guys, we’re getting drug dealers off the streets, and that’s what we’re doing. And I’ll say that to a Democrat or a Republican. So I mean, I don’t, I dunno what the question is.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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