Reject the Confirmation of Todd Blanche as U.S. Attorney General 
 
The Honorable Chuck Grassley, Chairman 
Committee on the Judiciary 
United States Senate

The Honorable Dick Durbin, Ranking Member 
Committee on the Judiciary 
United States Senate

Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Durbin: 
 
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 46 additional organizations write to express our strong opposition to the confirmation of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as the next Attorney General of the United States. If this nomination is ultimately brought to a vote on the Senate floor, The Leadership Conference intends to include Senators’ positions in our voting record for the 119th Congress.  

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was created more than 150 years ago in part to enforce the Reconstruction Amendments aimed at abolishing slavery, ensuring equal protection under the law, and securing voting rights for Black Americans. Its mission historically included the enforcement of our federal civil rights laws and the upholding of principles of equality and justice that are foundational to American democracy.  

Blanche’s nomination flies in the face of this history and these principles. As Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General, he bears responsibility for the DOJ’s transformation into a protector of President Trump’s personal and political interests, rather than the protector of the people’s rights through the neutral use of prosecutorial powers. He has turned the DOJ into an instrument of Trump’s personal rage and revenge. He has turned the Department into a defender of civil rights violators, instead prosecuting organizations and people who have worked to hold the government accountable and who have fought for civil rights and against hate and extremism. 

Blanche has repeatedly demonstrated he is committed to serving Trump above all and to dismantling and reversing our nation’s civil rights progress. At his confirmation hearing last year to be Deputy Attorney General, he would not even commit to recusing himself from matters where he served as Trump’s personal attorney. He remains the president’s lawyer, still representing his client, but now with the full resources of the federal government behind him.  

Examples of Blanche’s Record 

During his tenure, before and after his elevation to Acting Attorney General, Blanche has:   

• Publicly asserted Trump has a “right” and a “duty” to direct the Department to investigate specific individuals, breaking with 50 years of post-Watergate independence. 

• Weaponized the federal government in a coordinated attack against those deemed political enemies who are fighting to protect civil rights including the Southern Poverty Law Center, and civic participation organizations like the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. 

• Publicly endorsed sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to polling stations in the 2026 midterm elections at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event, where he also agreed with a debunked claim of widespread noncitizen voting and praised the Civil Rights Division’s corrupt and dangerous effort to obtain unredacted state voter rolls. His appearance at a partisan political event broke with decades of internal DOJ policy.   

• Personally interviewed convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell over two days in a closed-door meeting, with no other DOJ prosecutors or law enforcement personnel present. Days after the interview, Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security prison camp.  

• Weaponized the False Claims Act (FCA) to advance the President’s political agenda when, in May 2025, he launched the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative to investigate and bring fraud claims against private companies, educational institutions, and other federal contractors and grantees that certify their compliance with federal civil rights laws. Blanche has asserted that these entities may be liable under the FCA if they engage in practices to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. 

• Fired two immigration judges, Judges Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, because they refused to rubber-stamp deportations of pro-Palestinian voices. This followed an announcement by Blanche in March 2025 that the DOJ was investigating whether pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University violated federal anti-terrorism laws, stating “this is long overdue.” Patel and Froes were among six judges fired that day and 113 fired since January of last year.  

• Fired a 15-year DOJ immigration attorney, Erez Reuveni, for truthfully telling a court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been wrongfully deported to El Salvador. In a subsequent whistleblower disclosure to Congress, Reuveni alleged senior officials directed subordinates to defy court orders and make false statements to judges.  

• Moved to erase the seditious conspiracy convictions of 12 Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders for their involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Trump had previously commuted, but not pardoned, these defendants. Vacating the convictions would erase their felonies and restore their firearms rights ahead of the 2026 midterms.  

• Removed the career prosecutor leading the investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan after she raised concerns about the sufficiency of the evidence, and replaced her with Joseph diGenova, a longtime Trump devotee who has publicly called Brennan a traitor. Several weeks later, Blanche publicly defended the felony prosecution of another Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, for posting a photo of seashells on his social media account.    

Conclusion  

The role of the Attorney General is not to protect the interests of the President, but to protect the interests of the nation’s people. But throughout his tenure at DOJ, Todd Blanche has repeatedly acted as the president’s personal lawyer still representing his client — and he is now using his powers to indict civil rights organizations, vacate the convictions of seditious conspirators, fire career prosecutors who tell the truth in court, and supervise the prosecution of Trump’s political adversaries.  

His record disqualifies him for Senate confirmation as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. As such, we urge you to reject his confirmation.  

Sincerely, 

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights 
Alliance for Justice 
American Association of University Women (AAUW) 
American Atheists 
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 
Arab American Institute (AAI) 
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC 
Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues 
Coalition on Human Needs 
Common Cause 
Constitutional Accountability Center 
Court Accountability Action 
Demand Justice 
Democracy 21 
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund 
Earthjustice Action 
Equal Justice Society 
Equal Rights Advocates  
Feminist Majority Foundation 
Human Rights Campaign 
Indivisible  
Just Detention International 
Lambda Legal 
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law 
Lawyers for Good Government 
League of Conservation Voters 
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) 
Legal Momentum, The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund  
NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. 
National Council of Jewish Women 
National Fair Housing Alliance 
National Hispanic Media Coalition 
National Immigration Law Center 
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice 
National Organization for Women 
National Women’s Law Center 
National Women’s Political Caucus 
National Workrights Institute 
Oasis Legal Services 
People For the American Way 
Reproductive Freedom for All 
Stand Up America 
The Feminist Majority  
The Fenway Institute  
The Sikh Coalition 
Trans Empowerment Project 
Voto Latino 
 
cc: Members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary