Todd Blanche's Confirmation Would Have Been A Scandal in 1973
Julian Zelizer argues that Todd Blanche's confirmation as attorney general reveals how far Trump has eroded the post-Watergate DOJ firewall, with two GOP senators accepting vague assurances as adequate.
Intelligence analysis by Llama
Foreign Policy's Julian Zelizer frames Todd Blanche's attorney general confirmation as proof the post-Watergate DOJ firewall has collapsed. Senators Tillis and Cornyn accepted vague promises about a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund instead of substantive commitments on DOJ independence.
A long time ago, President Nixon tried to use the Justice Department to help his friends and hurt his enemies. People got so mad they made rules to keep the president's lawyers independent. Now Trump's attorney general says 'I'm the president's lawyer,' and the senators didn't really do anything about it.
Analysis
The $1.8 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund
The most concrete concession extracted from Todd Blanche during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation was his pledge to abandon the $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund. The proposal would have provided financial support to individuals the administration claims were persecuted by the federal government — a thinly veiled mechanism to compensate Trump allies targeted in past investigations. Senators Tom Tillis and John Cornyn forced Blanche to issue a statement that the fund "is not moving forward," yet the careful, conditional wording leaves its future genuinely uncertain. The fact that two senior Republican senators, both no longer facing reelection, treated such an ambiguous statement as adequate reveals how low the bar for executive-branch oversight has fallen.
Tillis and Cornyn's Narrow Bargain
The roles played by Tillis and Cornyn illustrate the diminished appetite within the Senate Republican conference for meaningful confrontation with the executive branch. Neither senator is running for reelection — a detail that theoretically freed them to demand more from the nominee without fear of primary retribution. Instead, they accepted a "binding written document" from Blanche specifying who would and would not be covered by the IRS-audit protection that shields members of the Trump family. The bargain they struck traded structural guarantees about DOJ independence for narrow, transactional assurances about specific Trump allies, a far cry from the era when the Senate Judiciary Committee used confirmation hearings to probe a nominee's constitutional philosophy.
The Saturday Night Massacre Firewall
Since the early 1970s, a series of internal rules, regulations, and informal norms have kept the Department of Justice at arm's length from the White House — the firewall that Blanche's confirmation is now openly dismantling. That firewall was built in direct response to the October 1973 Saturday Night Massacre, when Nixon ordered the firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, triggering the resignations of the attorney general and deputy attorney general in protest. Blanche's confirmation statement — "I'm his lawyer," referring to Trump — captures how completely that institutional memory has faded. When the attorney general identifies himself as the president's personal attorney rather than the Constitution's guardian, the very purpose of the post-Watergate firewall has been inverted.
Key points
- Todd Blanche was confirmed as attorney general after giving GOP senators vague assurances that a $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization fund' 'is not moving forward'.
- Senators Tom Tillis and John Cornyn extracted a 'binding written document' specifying which Trump family members would remain shielded from IRS audits, then declared themselves satisfied within hours.
- Blanche told the Senate Judiciary Committee 'I'm his lawyer,' referring to President Trump, before walking it back to 'I was' his lawyer.
- Zelizer draws a direct line to the October 1973 Saturday Night Massacre, when Nixon's attempt to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox produced the post-Watergate DOJ independence norms now being dismantled.
- The piece frames the moment as evidence that the post-Nixon firewall between the Oval Office and the Justice Department has been effectively removed.
Blanche's written commitments about the anti-weaponization fund and the IRS-audit carve-out, however conditional, create a documentary record that future congressional or judicial proceedings could reference. If the Department of Justice's career staff retain institutional norms internally, some separation from the White House may persist in practice regardless of leadership rhetoric.
The pattern of vague, easily reversed assurances, combined with the administration's history of policy reversals highlighted by the article's reference to the Iran war, suggests the anti-weaponization fund could quietly reappear under a different name. More structurally, the open identification of the attorney general as 'the president's lawyer' invites the use of DOJ prosecutorial power against political opponents, with the only meaningful check now being an acquiescent Senate Republican conference.
