Blanche: Only Donald Trump Knows Why Pam Bondi Was Fired

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche doesn’t know why President Donald Trump fired Pam Bondi last week — nor does he care to find out.

“Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I'm the acting attorney general, except for President Trump,” Blanche told reporters Tuesday during a press conference at Justice Department headquarters, his first public outing as the department’s temporary leader.

Bondi’s firing followed months of public and private complaints from Trump that the Justice Department hadn’t successfully pursued criminal prosecutions of his foes, but Blanche said he was taking no particular lesson from Bondi’s removal nor planning any course correction for DOJ.

“I don't operate every day trying to second guess what President Trump or anybody else is thinking. I just operate every day on doing everything that I need to do to execute the president's agenda and priorities,” Blanche said at the press conference called to outline anti-fraud plans. “I grow tired of people in the media saying why President Trump did or did not do something, because President Trump's the only one that knows that.”

Since Bondi’s abrupt firing last week, speculation has swirled about who might replace her permanently. Blanche, who is seen as a top contender, said Tuesday he would take the job if offered.

“If President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that's an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that's an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and I go back to being the DAG, that's an honor,” Blanche said. “If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.’”

While calls from Trump to target his enemies violate decades of tradition insulating the Justice Department’s enforcement actions from the White House, Blanche emphatically disputed a reporter’s suggestion that the entreaties breach a “firewall” in place since Watergate.

“That is the most false statement I've ever heard in my life … There’s always communication between a president and his priorities and what the Department of Justice should be focused on and not focused on,” Blanche said, blurring the longstanding distinction between setting broad enforcement priorities and urging prosecution of specific individuals.

Blanche, a former Trump criminal defense attorney who has served as deputy attorney general for the past year or so, also disputed assertions that the department is being weaponized against Trump enemies.

“It happens not to be true. We have tens of thousands of prosecutors all over this country putting bad guys in jail,” the acting AG said.

Blanche also defended the department’s decision to fire dozens of prosecutors who worked on cases targeting Trump. Many of them are suing the administration, but the acting AG argued it would have been unethical for them to stay on the job.

“If you were a prosecutor and you were trying to prosecute your boss, you have ethical duties as a lawyer that I think prevent you from continuing to work in that environment,” Blanche said.

The acting attorney general also accused journalists of being complicit in what he said were politically driven prosecutions of Trump.

“People in this room … .sat here with the last administration when you saw a weaponization of this department, the likes of which had never been seen in history. And some of you are looking down now, and I get it,” he said.