In what can only be described as a brazen power grab straight out of the late Roman playbook, Donald Trump has nominated Todd Blanche to be his permanent Attorney General. The appointment, if confirmed, would place a loyalist at the helm of the Justice Department at a time when Trump himself faces multiple criminal indictments. The message is unmistakable: the President intends to use the machinery of justice not to enforce the law but to settle scores and protect his own skin.
Blanche, a former federal prosecutor and onetime defence lawyer for Trump, embodies the very rot that has set into American governance. His pedigree is one of partisan hackery disguised as legal expertise. He is the sort of man who would have advised Tiberius on how to twist the lex maiestatis to crush his enemies. And like those ancient jurists, Blanche will be expected to deliver verdicts that please his master, not the goddess Justitia.
The historical parallels are chilling. Every decadent empire has seen its legal system suborned by executive power. In the late Republic, the praetors became puppets of the optimates. In the Victorian era, the Lord Chancellors were often patronage appointments, leading to scandals and a crisis of faith in the rule of law. What is remarkable about the Trump era is the shamelessness. There is no pretence of judicial independence. The nominees are chosen for their loyalty, their willingness to believe the President's lies about a stolen election, and their readiness to prosecute his political opponents.
This is not merely a partisan dispute. It is a constitutional crisis. The Department of Justice, from its founding under Edmund Randolph, was meant to be a neutral arbiter. That idea is now a corpse. Blanche's confirmation would be the final nail in the coffin. The question is whether the Senate, that chamber of supposed sober second thought, will stand up or roll over. Given the sycophantic performances of the current Republican caucus, I suspect the latter. They are the modern equivalent of the Byzantine eunuchs, eager to please their emperor.
The legal storm ahead is not just for Trump and his allies. It is for the very idea of America. A nation that weaponises its courts is a nation that has abandoned the Enlightenment principles on which it was founded. It becomes a banana republic, a tinpot dictatorship. And the world will watch, tut-tutting, as the last superpower descends into legal chaos.
Some will say I am overstating the case. They will point to the confirmations of previous Attorneys General from both parties who were partisan figures. But there is a difference between a partisan and a fixer. Eric Holder was a partisan; he did not, however, conspire to overturn an election. William Barr was a partisan; he did not, however, promise to jail the President's rivals. Blanche, by contrast, has already shown his colours by defending Trump's most absurd claims. His nomination is the apotheosis of a trend that began with Watergate and accelerated under Clinton, Bush, and Obama: the politicisation of the law.
We are living through a second Fall of Rome. The barbarians are not at the gates; they are inside, wearing suits and carrying briefcases. Todd Blanche is their standard-bearer. Let us hope the senators remember their duty to the Constitution before it is too late. But I am not holding my breath.
