Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9XhEcEFZ-M
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The Trump administration is trying to bring the Justice Department under heel. Legal scholars have documented a pattern of senior DOJ officials shirking ethics rules, with the department filing amicus briefs signaling it will no longer abide by the McDade Amendment requiring federal prosecutors to follow state ethics rules — Lawfare
In November, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stood up at a Federalist Society event and said the Justice Department was in a “war” against bar associations. Blanche made the remarks at a Federalist Society event on Nov. 7, 2025, declaring the DOJ would change its rules to take “activist, obnoxious bars” out of the picture by claiming sole authority to adjudicate ethics complaints against its lawyers — Lawfare
He vowed to curb their oversight powers and hire outside counsel to fight disciplinary actions against DOJ lawyers. At the same Federalist Society event, Blanche vowed to curb bar associations’ oversight powers and hire outside counsel to fight disciplinary actions against DOJ lawyers — Democracy Docket
A federal judge has now ruled that Blanche personally drove a vindictive prosecution of a man the government wrongly deported. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw dismissed the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on May 22, 2026, finding the government would not have prosecuted him absent his successful lawsuit challenging his mistaken deportation to El Salvador — NPR
Then went on Fox News and effectively admitted the reason on camera. Judge Crenshaw cited Blanche’s Fox News interview the day of Abrego Garcia’s arrest, in which Blanche revealed the government started investigating Abrego after a Maryland judge questioned the deportation and found the government had no right to deport him — NBC News
The judge’s words: Blanche’s public statements “taints the investigation with a vindictive motive.” Judge Crenshaw wrote that “Blanche’s now unrebutted public statements tying the reopened investigation to Abrego’s successful lawsuit taints the investigation with a vindictive motive” — NPR
A national watchdog has asked New York to investigate his law license over it. The Campaign for Government Accountability filed a complaint with New York’s attorney discipline committee asking it to probe Blanche over the Abrego Garcia prosecution, arguing he had abused his authority for political ends — Democracy Docket
Over 120 attorneys, law professors, and former judges have asked Florida to investigate his predecessor over a separate pattern of misconduct. More than 120 scholars, practitioners, and former judges filed an ethics complaint with the Florida Bar against former Attorney General Pam Bondi, structured around her “zealous advocacy” memorandum that critics say rebranded the DOJ as Trump’s personal law firm — Above the Law
And the Justice Department’s proposed rule, the one Blanche is still pushing, would let DOJ pause any state bar investigation into its own attorneys by simply opening its own — and then sitting on it. A DOJ proposed rule posted in the Federal Register would suspend any state ethics proceedings against current or former DOJ attorneys if the department decides to conduct its own review first, allowing the DOJ to head off bar investigations by opening and indefinitely stalling its own — Democracy Docket