The Conflict Over the US Dept. of Justice
In a July 30, 2026 commentary at Consortium News, former New Jersey judge Andrew P. Napolitano argues that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche should not be confirmed as attorney general, contending that his years as Trump’s personal defense lawyer leave him unable to separate loyalty to the president from his oath to the law. Napolitano frames the nomination as a test of the long-running tension between the unitary executive theory and the Justice Department’s tradition of impartial, evidence-driven enforcement, and points to two recent matters — the lethal maritime counter-narcotics strikes and a Trump lawsuit against the IRS that a Miami federal court found was not litigated in good faith — as evidence that Blanche defers to presidential preference over legal analysis.