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COLUMBUS — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told The Post in an interview Thursday that he’s “honored” to receive the president’s nomination as “permanent” head of the Justice Department, saying he’ll work with both GOP and Democratic lawmakers if confirmed.
Blanche said he’s coordinating closely with FBI Director Kash Patel since the exit of former AG Pam Bondi — including on fraud busts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars — and that cracking down on scoundrels, illegal immigration and violent or drug-trafficking crimes were top priorities.
“The violent crime numbers are down to historic lows, and that’s because of President Trump and him unleashing law enforcement to do their jobs,” Blanche said. “There’s a slogan, ‘Make America Safe Again,’ that is not just a slogan for us: It’s actually our way of life.”
Trump intends to formally nominate his next AG soon, but broke the news Wednesday at an event in the Rose Garden — with Blanche, his former defense attorney, in attendance.
“I talk to him regularly about the work we’re doing, and he knows that everybody in the department’s working really hard,” he said of the president, adding that he didn’t have any “specific conversations” about his pending appointment that will require Senate confirmation.
Asked about his priorities should he win enough votes in the Senate, Blanche answered: “Most importantly and meaningfully, the work we’re doing right now, so we’re on a trip to Ohio to talk about fraud cases that the department is bringing that the FBI worked on.”
Blanche worked in his early years as a prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, initially as a paralegal while attending law school by night and then as an assistant US attorney, rising to become the co-chief of the office’s violent crimes division, bringing cases against drug dealers, gangs and murderers.
On Thursday, the acting AG stood alongside Patel and others to announce charges against defendants in Ohio who had allegedly bilked Medicaid programs out of $32 million meant for children with psychological or other behavioral issues. The scammers purportedly spent the taxpayer funds on luxury cars.
Pressed about how he expects his nomination will be received in Congress during the press conference, Blanche added: “I will work with the senators. I have a good relationship … with the Senate on both sides. I don’t say no to phone calls. I’ll meet with anybody that wants to meet with me.”
But some Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee that will vet his nomination have expressed reservations, in part over a $1.776 billion fund created through Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS that could be used to compensate pardoned Jan. 6, 2021, rioters as well as other victims of perceived political prosecutions.
Blanche’s brief tenure as acting leader of the DOJ has also been marked by high-profile indictments of Trump foes like former FBI Director James Comey, who had first been charged in September under Bondi for lying to Congress before the case was dismissed on procedural grounds.
Now, Comey faces charges in North Carolina for allegedly making threats to kill Trump in a May 2025 Instagram post of seashells that were laid on the beach to state “8647” —with Blanche annoucing the indictment one day after a gunman nearly breached the room where the 47th president was at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, DC.
The term “86” is slang for getting rid of something in the restaurant industry, whether a dish or an unruly patron.
Additionally, Blanche and Patel announced charges on April 21 against the Southern Poverty Law Center for allegedly fleecing donors to pay neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members through sham entities as part of a shadowy informant network that the feds said only further stoked racial hatred.
In some cases, Klan members were allegedly reimbursed by the left-wing nonprofit for “wood and fuel” needed in cross-burnings, though no individuals have been indicted yet in connection with the counts for making false statements to banks about the expenses.
It’s one of several cases that Blanche has insisted was not politically motivated and, in fact, began well before his time in the Trump administration.
“We’re continuing to investigate it as aggressively as the American people would expect us to,” he said.
Trump fired Bondi on April 2 after having erupted in a Truth Social post months before about her failure to bring charges against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had secured a $454 million civil judgment against the 45th president for inflating his real estate empire.
“I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia???’” Trump had said in a Sept. 21, 2025, post.
Within four days, Comey was indicted for making false statements to Congress about FBI-authorized leaks to the media on alleged Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign, and James was indicted for mortgage fraud in October.
Both cases were tossed when a judge ruled that the prosecutor installed by Bondi to bring the indictments had been unlawfully appointed.
Before his elevation, the then-deputy attorney general had dealt with public backlash over the department’s botched release of investigative materials on the deceased sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein — a 2024 campaign promise of Trump’s — that has prompted a congressional probe.
Blanche, and Bondi before him, had emphasized that the DOJ fully released all 3 million Epstein files, with the exception of redactions to protect victims and that, like all of the ongoing cases the administration takes up, FBI agents and prosecutors are ready to investigate any allegations of wrongdoing.
“Any witness that wants to come talk to the FBI, not only do we do we have an open door, but we encourage it,” he added. “We want them to.”
Patel said he was “thrilled” to be working with Blanche on all the department’s cases, which include the recent indictment and pending extradition of ex-Cuban leader Raul Castro for shooting down humanitarian aid workers in 1996.
There are also cases, which the FBI boss affirmed were “ongoing,” into government employees accused of destroying federal records relevant to the origins of COVID-19 and a rapidly growing scandal involving a former CIA officer who allegedly stole tens of millions of dollars in gold bars and currency.
“I’ve been friends with Todd for a long time,” Patel said. “We’ve been working since literally day one, basically, in the administration, when he was a deputy general and now the attorney general.”
“It’s going to expand what we’ve already accomplished in terms of historic reduction in crime, especially violent crime and national security,” Patel added.
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