President-elect Donald Trump has picked his personal criminal defense lawyer Todd Blanche as his Deputy Attorney General and added other attorneys who have represented him to senior Department of Justice positions.
Blanche, who defended the 78-year-old in his New York hush-money trial, would be Matt Gaetz’s Number Two at the Department of Justice and head day-to-day operations.
‘I am pleased to announce that Todd Blanche will serve as Deputy Attorney General in my Administration,’ Trump announced Thursday evening.
‘Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken System of Justice for far too long.’
Trump touted the 50-year-old’s experience in prosecuting gangs and the fact he stood by his side during the Manhattan case where he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Emil Bove, another attorney on the hush money trial team, was given the role of principal associate deputy attorney general while John Sauer, the lawyer in Trump’s Supreme Court immunity case, was chosen as solicitor general.
President-elect Donald Trump has picked his personal criminal defense lawyer Todd Blanche as his Deputy Attorney General
The president-elect made the moves as Republicans appeared increasingly skeptical that Gaetz’s nomination could make it through the Senate.
Gaetz had been the subject of a years-long House Ethics Committee probe that ended Wednesday after his abrupt resignation from Congress, one day after Trump shockingly nominated him to be the top law enforcement official in the nation.
His exit comes as allegations resurfaced Thursday about a woman who reportedly testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17.
The FBI had investigated similar claims against Gaetz, but the DOJ opted not to indict him over claims he sex trafficked a minor.
Trump’s pick of the embattled former congressman to oversee the Justice Department, FBI, DEA, ATF and related agencies has shocked Republicans and Democrats.
And the bombshell claims could derail his hopes of taking the helm as attorney general.
Now, senators who will vote on his nomination are demanding to review the House report before the 42-year-old Florida man is able to join Trump’s Cabinet.
‘The President’s role is to make the nomination, but we need to have complete vetting of the nominees, not only so we know that the nominee is qualified, but also to protect the president,’ Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Thursday.
Blanche, who defended the 78-year-old in the New York hush-money trial, would be Matt Gaetz’s Number Two and in charge of day-to-day operations at the Department of Justice
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 12, 2024. He resigned his House seat on Wednesday immediately after being nominated by Donald Trump to be attorney general
Gaetz has long been one of Trump’s most ardent supporters in the House
He ‘absolutely’ wants to review the House Ethics Committee’s report on Gaetz’s conduct.
Cornyn even floated the idea of taking legal action to review the report’s contents.
‘There’s various ways we can glean access to it, we can subpoena it,’ he told reporters. ‘I don’t I don’t think any of us want to fly blind.’
Cornyn argued the Senate has a role in weeding out unqualified candidates during the nomination process, and that doing so protects the president from potential bad apples.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., however, doesn’t think that will work, nor does he want it to happen.
When pressed on if the Senate would be able to subpoena an unreleased House ethics report Graham responded: ‘I wouldn’t think so.’
The South Carolinian also added he wouldn’t want the House to be able to subpoena unreleased Senate reports.
Gaetz has called the investigation ‘frivolous’ and a smear campaign against him.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Ala., the chairman of the House Ethics Committee, reiterated Thursday that he does not intend to release the report.
Gaetz and his wife Ginger pose on the rooftop of the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.=
‘What happens in Ethics is confidential. We’re going to maintain that confidentiality,’ he told reporters Thursday.
There is also the possibility that committee members, or staff, would leak the document.
The top Democrat on the Ethics panel, Glenn Ivey, D-Md., told DailyMail.com he had no knowledge of any anticipated Ethics leaks for Gaetz’s file. He said he couldn’t recall another instance of a report from the committee being leaked.
On the other hand, Ivey noted that Gaetz has repeatedly accused the Ethics Committee of leaking information regarding their investigation, though he denied the allegations.
But that has not stopped senators from calling to see the report.
Democratic Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin wrote Thursday: ‘I am calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve and share their report and all relevant documentation on Mr. Gaetz with the Senate Judiciary Committee.’
Later in the day Durbin released a letter co-signed by 10 other Democrats demanding the House Ethics Committee turn over their report.
They wrote that the timing regarding Gaetz’s sudden resignation seems suspicious
President Donald Trump takes a selfie with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., in the House chamber after Trump’s State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on January 30, 2018.
Gaetz was by Trump’s side during his legal hearings in New York earlier this year
Gaetz speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 17, 2024
‘The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report and findings,’ the Democrats wrote.
‘We cannot allow this critical information from a bipartisan investigation into longstanding public allegations to be hidden from the American people, given that it is directly relevant to the question of whether Mr. Gaetz is qualified and fit to be the next Attorney General of the United States.’
When asked if he wanted to see the Gaetz report Thursday Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said he does.
‘It’ll be a fine tooth comb,’ the Alabaman said of reviewing Gaetz’s file. ‘And they knew that going in.’
‘It will be one of those [nominations] that will be well scrutinized,’ he added.
Still, Tuberville says he likes the former Florida lawmaker
‘I’m a Matt Gaetz fan because I’ve known it for him for a long time. He’s smart, been on Judiciary [Committee] for seven years, a very good lawyer, well spoken, believes in the Constitution and I think he’d do a great job.’
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he absolutely wants to review the Gaetz ethics report
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., told reporters he’d like to take a ‘fine toothed comb’ to the Gaetz report
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., told DailyMail.com ‘I need to learn more about him generally … I’m sure whatever information I need to review will be forthcoming.’
Trump, however, has demanded that the Senate use ‘recess appointments’ to confirm Cabinet nominees.
‘Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,’ Trump wrote on X Sunday.
This cuts against the desires of many Republican senators to hold hearings and votes for nominees.
‘I’m fine with it, but I hope we don’t have to do it,’ Tuberville said of Trump’s recess appointments. ‘I hope we can just do them ourselves and and go through the same process.’
‘Well, I think we ought to be able to go through the regular process,’ Republican Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts told DailyMail.com.
US Senator John Cornyn, Republican from Texas, speaks to reporters on his way to a vote at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on November 14, 2024
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told DailyMail.com: ‘I think it’s too early to tell whether you need to go to any kind of extraordinary measures to do it.’
‘I’m not opposed to it, but there’s all kinds of ins and outs of how you get to that.’
Paul, who will be chairman of the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs come January, noted he is planning on having hearings for nominees under his purview.
Meaning South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who Trump nominated for Department of Homeland Security secretary, will need to sit before Paul’s panel before getting confirmed into Trump’s Cabinet.
‘My plan is to have hearings at the first possible date for the ones I’m in charge of,’ he revealed.
