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** Trump’s Personal Defense Attorney General
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After Donald Trump ousted Pam Bondi as U.S. attorney general in April, he picked Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — who is also his former personal defense attorney — to fill in as acting attorney general. Now, Blanche is preparing for confirmation hearings to become U.S. attorney general and lead the Justice Department.
Blanche has said that he has a “continuing duty of loyalty ([link removed]) ” to Trump. The attorney general should be loyal to the Constitution, not the president, but Blanche’s allegiance to Trump — and the actions he’s already taken at DOJ — raise serious concerns. As acting AG, Blanche was central to the planning ([link removed]) for Trump’s controversial $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claim they were wrongly investigated by the Biden administration. He also announced the prosecutions of the Southern Poverty Law Center and James Comey.
Blanche has also been involved in the battle over the Presidential Records Act (PRA). Despite his clear conflict of interest, he was given the authority to decide which presidential records from Trump’s first administration are eligible for release under the PRA. That was before DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel declared that the Trump administration does not need to adhere to the PRA at all — an unconstitutional claim that we are challenging in court ([link removed]) .
If he is confirmed as attorney general, Blanche will have even more power at DOJ. That’s why, on Friday, we filed new Freedom of Information Act ([link removed]) requests ([link removed]) for Blanche’s communications that will shed light on whether he is using his power to shield the president from investigations — specifically DOJ’s review of the Epstein files and Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on his federal investigation into Trump. Those documents could provide important details about Blanche’s actions and intentions at DOJ, and the public should have access to them before his confirmation vote.
** Everything we know about ICE’s rapid expansion so far
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Aggressive immigration enforcement is a defining feature of Trump’s second term. After a massive budget increase in summer 2025, ICE has been expanding rapidly: hiring agents, leasing facilities, forming partnerships with local police departments, and gaining access to a number of government data sources. ICE’s growing authority, ranks, and budget have been accompanied by increasingly aggressive tactics that claimed at least 33 lives ([link removed]) in 2025.
We’ve consolidated all of our public records requests and litigation with ICE into a single overview ([link removed]) that explains what the agency is doing, and how we’re combating overreach. We already exposed ([link removed]) ICE’s involvement in the death of Ruben Ray Martinez and uncovered an agreement ([link removed]) that gave ICE access to sensitive taxpayer data. We’ve filed more than 200 requests to expose even more. We asked ICE for:
* Communications about agents’ access to Americans’ sensitive information to conduct surveillance.
* Guidance and directives given to agents conducting raids at previously protected sensitive locations like churches and schools.
* Briefings on ICE’s use of tracking technologies (like ankle monitors, GPS trackers, and biometric check-ins) to monitor people awaiting immigration court hearings or deportation.
Read more about our investigation ([link removed]) .
** American Oversight in the news
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* Fund while it lasted (NOTUS ([link removed]) )
* Noem faces new legal trouble over jet use (Salon ([link removed]) )
** Other stories we’re following
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** ICE is now funded through end of Trump's term, raising worries about oversight (NPR ([link removed]) )
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** ICE detention center in Texas flagged for missing records, medical failures and wasteful spending (Reuters ([link removed]) )
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** Trump fuels election-fraud claims in California (Wall Street Journal ([link removed]) )
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** They rejected Biden’s 2020 win. Now they’re running for office (USA Today ([link removed]) )
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