Less than two weeks after Todd Blanche took on his role as deputy attorney general in March 2025, the Justice Department’s top ethics lawyer delivered some straightforward yet inconvenient news: his recusal from legal cases involving President Donald Trump in his personal capacity was necessary.
The meeting, which has not previously been reported, is the first time Blanche was formally informed he would need to recuse himself from cases involving Trump. Joseph Tirrell, the official conducting the briefing, handed Blanche and his then-top deputy, Emil Bove, a printed PowerPoint presentation on ethics, according to a former senior Justice Department ethics official who described the meeting to CNN.
Now serving as acting attorney general, Blanche finds himself in an ethical quandary. His previous role representing Trump in criminal prosecutions brought by the Justice Department means that he is switching sides — overseeing the department’s investigation of former government officials whom Trump claims unfairly used the criminal justice system to target him.
The Recusal Pledge
Blanche signed the department’s ethics pledge laid out to him by Tirrell, according to the former ethics official and a document submitted to the Office of Government Ethics. That pledge included requirements for Blanche to not participate for at least a year in any department matters involving past clients of the Blanche Law Group, the small private law firm Blanche used to represent Trump in criminal cases.
The department’s regulations also prohibit his participation “in any criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship” with anyone involved in or having an interest in that investigation or prosecution.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said Wednesday that Blanche is complying with ethical obligations. “He is recused from many cases before DOJ. In any cases that are still ongoing where he previously represented someone, he is recused,” the spokeswoman said.
The department did not specify which cases Blanche is recused from, but this was the first time they have publicly acknowledged that he has recused from some investigations. After publication, CNN received an additional statement: “To the extent DOJ is investigating something related to the President for which Todd was previously representing him, then hypothetically yes, he would recuse.” The spokeswoman added that it remains “a hypothetical.”
The Conflict of Interest
Blanche’s potential conflict is more acute now that he has installed Joe diGenova, a former US attorney for DC, to reinvigorate an investigation into what diGenova has outlined as a broad conspiracy against Trump. The conspiracy is said to span from the 2017 Russian election interference probe to the aborted Special Counsel Jack Smith prosecutions that ended in 2024.
Among those targeted for possible prosecution is John Brennan, the former CIA director — a top priority for Trump in his efforts to prosecute his political foes. Brennan denies wrongdoing. Last week, a spokesperson told CNN that Blanche had not recused himself from the investigation into Brennan, which the department has repeatedly declined to comment on.
Inside the Justice Department, Blanche has delegated oversight of the so-called conspiracy investigation to top aides, people briefed on the matter said. He has not participated in meetings on the probe in recent months.
The Ethics Memo and Firings
In early 2025, a top career lawyer at the department wrote a memo to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi raising concerns that Bove was overseeing the effort to purge Justice Department employees involved in Trump-related prosecutions. The memo noted that Bove had worked on investigations of January 6 Capitol riot defendants when he was a prosecutor in New York’s southern district and therefore should not be involved in the department’s anti-weaponization plans.
Despite the advice, Bove continued to oversee the Weaponization Working Group. He left the department to become an appeals court judge last year.
Since that meeting last spring, the Trump administration has gutted both the department’s career ethics staff and its Office of Professional Responsibility. Tirrell, the ethics official who had briefed Blanche on recusal, was fired in July. He has since sued the Justice Department seeking compensation. Career employees within the Office of Professional Responsibility, including the director of a unit tasked with ensuring DOJ attorneys did not cross ethical lines, were also fired.
The Ethical Quandary
Recusal is a word that comes with treacherous consequences in the Trump era. Blanche’s choice is either to oversee investigations the president cares deeply about but risk damaging their viability in court, or to recuse himself and risk incurring the president’s wrath.
Benjamin Grimes, the former deputy director of the DOJ’s Professional Responsibility Advisory Office and now a Columbia Law School professor, has concerns that Trump — Blanche’s former private client would be his only superior who could evaluate and decide whether a conflict of interest between Trump personally and the Justice Department can be overcome.
“It’s a conflict that is insurmountable,” Grimes said. He added that it is also a problem if Trump were to want information out of the Justice Department that would benefit him personally.
The Bottom Line
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was formally advised last year to recuse himself from Justice Department matters involving President Trump in his personal capacity. He signed an ethics pledge to that effect. The department now says he is complying with ethical obligations, but has not specified which cases he is recused from.
Blanche previously represented Trump as his primary defense lawyer in two federal criminal cases. He has since installed a prosecutor to investigate Trump’s perceived political enemies, including former CIA director John Brennan. The department has gutted its career ethics staff, and the official who briefed Blanche on recusal has been fired and is now suing.
Ethics experts say the conflict is insurmountable. But with the department’s internal watchdogs removed, the ultimate check on Blanche’s decisions may fall to Congress.
