President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that he will nominate his attorney Todd Blanche to serve as the deputy attorney general, the second-highest position in the Justice Department.
“Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken system of justice for far too long,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.
Mr. Blanche has represented Mr. Trump for the past 18 months, including defending him during his criminal hush-money trial in Manhattan earlier this year. A Manhattan jury found Mr. Trump guilty of 34 felony counts in the case.
Since the case, Mr. Blanche has been spotted with Mr. Trump around Mar-a-Lago and when the president-elect travels.
Mr. Blanche is the second nomination Mr. Trump announced for the Justice Department.
On Wednesday, he nominated Rep. Matt Gaetz, to serve as attorney general, sparking what is expected to be a contentious and difficult confirmation process in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.
The Justice Department has been prioritized by Mr. Trump in his second administration as he seeks to lower crime and curb illegal immigration. He also wants to overhaul how the department operates, accusing it of filing criminal charges against him and other Republiucans as a form of “lawfare.”
Mr. Blanche served as a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, who later worked as a partner at a top white-collar defense firm before he left to represent Mr. Trump.
Recently, the FBI said his cellphone had been tapped by Chinese hackers as part of an operation targeting top Republicans and Democrats in U.S. politics. Some text messages and voice records were hacked, but none of the data related to Mr. Trump.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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