{"id":278229,"date":"2026-06-25T20:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T20:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/278229\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T20:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T20:23:10","slug":"101-judges-raise-new-york-state-bar-ethics-complaint-over-todd-blanche-trumps-acting-attorney-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/278229\/","title":{"rendered":"101 judges raise New York State bar ethics complaint over Todd Blanche, Trump\u2019s acting attorney general"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 100 current and former federal judges have sent a letter<\/a> to the New York State Bar Association raising serious concerns over acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche<\/a> and calling for a professional and ethics investigation into his conduct in office.<\/p>\n

The judges allege that Blanche, who has been serving as acting attorney general after President Donald Trump fired Pam Bondi from the post in April, is operating with a conflict of interest because he previously defended Trump in criminal cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is particularly concerning, the judges say, because Blanche\u2019s day-to-day responsibilities involve overseeing investigations into the Epstein Files, where Trump, his former client, is referenced more than 5,300<\/a> times. Additionally, Blanche oversaw the questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein\u2019s former girlfriend and co-conspirator, when he served as a deputy attorney general in 2025 before she was suddenly transferred to a minimum-security prison, going against the Bureau of Prisons\u2019 policy for sex offenders.<\/p>\n

The 73-page letter to the New York State Bar Association, authored jointly by the judges and legal advocacy groups Democracy Defenders Fund and Lawyers Defending American Democracy, expresses doubt he\u2019s able to carry out his legal responsibility on that matter impartially, detailing roughly a dozen instances in which they\u2019re concerned Blanche has acted improperly, mischaracterized something or violated professional ethical conduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also calls into question Blanche\u2019s participation in the recent settlement agreement that would have created a nearly $2 billion Anti-Weaponization slush fund<\/a>, suggesting that while Blanche was supposed to be representing the people of the United States against the president in the matter, they\u2019re concerned he was actually providing legal advice to Trump or throwing the case in the president\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

When reached for comment, the Department of Justice charged that the judges\u2019 complaint is a \u201cpathetic stunt conjured up by activist judges\u201d who are \u201cdesperate\u201d for a \u201ccrumb of attention from the liberal media.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cActing AG Blanche continues to serve the Department and American people with the utmost professionalism and integrity,\u201d a DOJ spokesperson claimed in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New York State Bar declined to comment when asked about the ethics complaint.\n<\/p>\n

Judges say Todd Blanche put Trump\u2019s agenda before the Constitution<\/p>\n

Blanche and the DOJ never contested Trump\u2019s claims before settling the case in favor of the president, which the judges allege is preferential treatment of Trump that \u201craises serious questions,\u201d particularly because the settlement, which has since been struck down, gave Trump \u201cextraordinary release of tax liability and liability for other legal claims. Blanche had previously vowed that he would cease representing his former client and testified to Congress that he would not violate ethical obligations at the DOJ.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTime and again, acting AG Blanche has prioritized Donald Trump\u2019s personal agenda over the non-partisan integrity demanded by his oath of office,\u201d the judges allege.<\/p>\n

Senate confirmation hearings for Blanche are set for July 15 and July 16. U.S. Senators have criticized<\/a> Blanche, particularly regarding his conduct in the slush fund settlement.<\/p>\n

State bar associations are tasked with responding to ethics complaints and investigating attorneys in their state. As Blanche is barred in New York, the judges from across the country have signed onto the complaint asking the New York State Bar to investigate his conduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blanche worked as a paralegal and assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York for roughly 15 years before leaving the department and serving as a defense attorney for Trump through 2023 and 2024. Most recently a deputy attorney general, he was appointed to head the Justice Department when Trump fired Bondi in April.<\/p>\n

Scott Harshbarger, the co-founder of Lawyers Defending American Democracy and two-term Massachusetts attorney general, said he hoped the state bar\u2019s attorney grievance committee would \u201crecognize\u201d its responsibility to investigate Blanche.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damage over these many months to the once esteemed Department of Justice has been incalculable,\u201d said Harshbarger, who signed onto the letter. \u201cHistorically, it was an honor to serve in the Department and lawyers did so with integrity and strict adherence to the Rules of Professional Conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 100 current and former federal judges have sent a letter to the New York State Bar Association…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[393,153,2710,9,11,10,49,51,50,52861],"class_list":["post-278229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-attorney-general","tag-donald-trump","tag-law","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-todd-blanche"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}