In an interview aired Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker asked Attorney General Todd Blanche a direct question: could he pledge that the Justice Department would always act independently of the White House? “No, I’m not going to pledge that,” Blanche answered, adding that no attorney general should ever make such a pledge.
Key facts
- Attorney general: Todd Blanche, sworn in Aug. 10, 2026, after a 50-49 Senate vote on Aug. 8.
- Interview: aired Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with host Kristen Welker.
- His answer: he would not pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House.
- Anti-Weaponization Fund: roughly $1.8 billion, created May 18, 2026; Blanche rescinded his own order on Aug. 2, 2026.
- Confirmation vote: Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted no, joined by every Democrat.
What Blanche said
Blanche did not leave it there. He said he would “act with integrity” and prosecute “without fear or any sort of favor,” while acknowledging he would weigh the president’s opinions: “Will I take the president of the United States’s view on something into consideration? Yes, of course.” He also rejected the idea that President Trump would push him toward anything improper. “The president will never ask me to do something unethical or illegal,” Blanche said. “He never has. He never will.”
Reaction
The exchange drew quick reaction from commentators. Former “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd, writing on X, called Blanche’s answer a “pretty amazing confession,” adding, “Still can’t believe he was confirmed. I guess he gets points for being honest?” A Justice Department spokesperson responded after the interview aired, telling Newsweek that Blanche had already addressed the independence question publicly, and pointing to internal communications the spokesperson said showed the Biden-era Justice Department taking White House direction during the 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. None of the reporting reviewed for this article showed a Republican senator or a White House spokesperson commenting on the record on the pledge exchange itself.
How Blanche became attorney general
Blanche came to the job from Trump’s own legal team, where he had served as the president’s personal defense attorney, representing him in New York’s hush-money case and in federal cases over classified documents and the 2020 election. He was confirmed as deputy attorney general in March 2025, then became acting attorney general after Trump dismissed Pam Bondi in April 2026. The Senate confirmed him as attorney general by a narrow 50-49 vote in the early hours of Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted no, joined by every Democrat. Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, who opposed the confirmation, has said, “If you want to wipe out corruption, you can’t have the president’s personal attorney as the Attorney General.” Had Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana also voted no, the nomination would have failed; instead he announced his support the day before the vote, and that support proved decisive. Blanche was sworn in on Aug. 10, 2026.
The Anti-Weaponization Fund
The Sunday interview also addressed the fate of the Justice Department’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a program news outlets have put at roughly $1.8 billion, created by an Attorney General’s order on May 18, 2026, while Blanche himself was serving as acting attorney general, to compensate people who said the federal government had wrongly targeted them, including some Jan. 6, 2021, defendants. Blanche used Sunday’s shows to insist the decision was final. The money was to come from the federal Judgment Fund, as part of settling a lawsuit Trump had brought against the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). A five-member commission was meant to decide who received payments or formal apologies. Blanche rescinded that order — his own order — on Aug. 2, after Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina made scrapping it a condition of backing his confirmation. His rescission order also states that no claims had been processed under the fund before it was scrapped. On “Meet the Press,” he reaffirmed it is finished: “I’ve said repeatedly, it’s dead. There is no fund, no money went from the Treasury to any account, there were no commissioners established. There is no fund, there will be no fund.” Asked about it again on “Fox News Sunday” the same day, he said, “the fund is dead or whatever word you want to use.”
What’s still unresolved
Whether that also closes the door on compensating Jan. 6 defendants some other way is a separate, unresolved question. Raw Story reported, from the same round of Sunday-show appearances, that Blanche said he did not know whether payments to Jan. 6 defendants were ruled out entirely. No source reviewed for this article resolved that gap. Rupa Bhattacharyya, a former Justice Department attorney, has separately questioned whether the rescission is the last word: “There are all sorts of ways this can come back.”