WASHINGTON, May 11, 2026 — President Donald Trump publicly credited Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche with keeping him out of prison during a Rose Garden dinner at the White House on Sunday, using the occasion of National Police Week to praise the man who served as his personal defense attorney before ascending to the nation’s top law enforcement post.
“We have a man who’s doing a great job, I’ll tell you,” Trump said at the Rose Garden Club Dinner. “I knew it, because he kept me out of jail for years. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. He kept me out of jail.”
The remarks drew applause from the crowd of law enforcement officials gathered at the White House for the annual National Police Week celebration.
From Defense Lawyer to Attorney General
Blanche’s path from Trump’s personal attorney to the nation’s acting attorney general is without modern precedent. He stepped in as one of Trump’s primary defense lawyers in 2023 after two of the president’s attorneys resigned following his federal indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents. He went on to serve as Trump’s lead defense counsel in the 2024 criminal hush-money trial in Manhattan — a case that ended in Trump’s conviction on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump was ultimately sentenced to an unconditional discharge — no jail time, no fine — ten days before his inauguration in January 2025. Blanche stood alongside Trump at Mar-a-Lago as the sentence was handed down by video. “The majority of the American people also agree that this case should not have been brought,” Blanche told the judge at sentencing.
Blanche also defended Trump in both federal cases brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith — the classified documents case and the January 6 case. Both were dismissed after Trump won the 2024 presidential election, in keeping with longstanding Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted or prosecuted while in office.
Trump nominated Blanche to serve as deputy attorney general upon returning to the White House in January 2025. The Senate confirmed him by a vote of 52-46 in March 2025. He was elevated to acting attorney general on April 2, 2026, after Trump fired Pam Bondi.
Weaponization and the ‘Crooked Democrats’
Trump used the Blanche introduction as a launching pad to relitigate his legal history and accuse Democrats of using the justice system as a political weapon against him — while preemptively deflecting accusations that he is now doing the same.
“They impeach me, they indict me, and then when I get in office, if I say something like, ‘Well, maybe that should be looked into’ — weaponization,” Trump said. “I go through court cases, I win ’em, but… ’cause they were fake indictments. But when I even mention that some of that stuff should be looked into, they said, ‘Weaponization. He’s a terrible human being. Weaponization.'”
Trump then directed a remark to FBI Director Kash Patel, who was present in the audience. “They blame me for weaponization,” Trump said. “They are a crooked bunch.”
Trump closed the passage with a contrast between his administration’s approach to law enforcement and what he described as a “sick and dangerous” prior regime. “We have great law enforcement now,” he said. “We have law enforcement that loves our country, not law enforcement that’s sick and dangerous.”
Blanche’s Tenure as Acting AG
Since taking over at the Justice Department in April, Blanche has moved aggressively on several fronts. He has approved investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, the Democratic fundraising organization ActBlue, and the civil rights organization the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has also overseen the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey — a case that drew significant attention from former prosecutors who questioned its legal basis.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2026, Blanche said he did not understand objections to deploying ICE officers to polling places for the 2026 midterm elections, stating: “Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places?” Federal law generally prohibits the deployment of armed federal law enforcement at polling places.
Trump called Blanche “a very talented and respected legal mind” in the Truth Social post announcing his elevation to acting attorney general in April. Blanche responded on X: “Thank you to President Trump for the trust and the opportunity to serve as Acting Attorney General. We will continue backing the blue, enforcing the law, and doing everything in our power to keep America safe.”
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