Attorney General Blanche Won’t Rule Out DOJ Blocking States From Certifying Midterm Results, a Day After Saying He Works for Trump

WASHINGTON, DC – Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday refused to rule out the Justice Department trying to block states from certifying midterm election results. Asked point blank whether he could rule out DOJ action to delay the counting of ballots, Blanche declined, floating farcical “doomsday” scenarios in which his department would insert itself into state certification.

The threat came one day after Blanche declared that DOJ independence from the White House is a “misperception,” announcing, “I work for President Trump.” He also refused to pledge independence from Trump in August and told Congress in May that the department takes its direction from the president.

Blanche has no legal ground to stand on. State and local officials run and certify elections, and no federal law gives DOJ power to challenge ballots or delay certification. Blanche has also dodged questions since July about sending federal agents to polling places. Last week, three senators demanded he confirm that DOJ, the FBI, and U.S. Marshals won’t seize ballots or voting machines.

“Todd Blanche told the country he works for Donald Trump, then refused to promise his Justice Department will keep its grubby hands off Americans’ votes,” said Mally Smith, Try And Stop Us Senior Adviser. “Put those statements side by side and you have an attorney general preparing to help his boss overturn an election he’s going to lose. Blanche has zero authority to stop a state from certifying, and he knows it. Trump and his allies can’t win a fair fight, so they want voters scared. The ballots will be counted, the results will be certified, and voters will decide this election.”

BACKGROUND

October 2026: “I Work For President Trump:” AG Blanche Declared DOJ Independence a “Misperception.” During an Oct. 21 interview, Attorney General Blanche argued that he is not subject to the “misperception” of DOJ independence, a longstanding policy separating the U.S. Justice system from political influence and partisan politics, telling a podcast host: “there was this misperception that there’s this separation and independence between the Department of Justice and the White House, and everybody likes to champion that, and they accuse me of not suffering from independence. I don’t. I work for President Trump.”

August 2026: AG Blanche Refused to Pledge Independence from Trump. In an Aug. 16 interview with NBC News, Blanche rejected the idea that his DOJ should operate independently of the White House, telling reporters, “No, I’m not going to pledge that…Will I take the president of the United States’ view on something into consideration? Yes.”

Trump’s DOJ Demanded States’ Voter Records, A Move A Federal Judge Has Called “Unprecedented and Illegal.” Last May, Trump’s Justice Department began demanding state records of voter registrations. Only a handful of states complied without resistance, but most refused to offer up sensitive, legally-protected voter data, prompting the DOJ to launch a pressure campaign against elections officials — and when that failed, pursuing the matter in court. The department has since lost all 26 such cases decided nationwide, and on October 9 a federal judge in Washington vacated the entire program, finding it had ignored the risk that its citizenship databases flag citizens by mistake.

Trump’s DOJ Threatened California Election Workers With Prison, and Trump Said They “Will All Go to Jail.” The DOJ sued California and Los Angeles County on October 15 to bar them from counting about 20,000 names it called “likely” noncitizens voters’ mail ballots. The next day, the acting deputy attorney general warned county counsel that anyone who “knowingly” tabulates them “risk[s] becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.” That evening Trump posted that California officials “will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!” On October 19 the department asked for an emergency order, calling 20,000 “the floor” and promising more names on a rolling basis, while civil rights groups intervened for the voters on the list.

• The DOJ Charged 28 Green-Card Holders, Whose Alleged Ballots Amount to 25 Out of 45 Million. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles charged 28 lawful permanent residents on October 19 with registering or voting, 22 of them accused of casting at least one ballot, arresting 11, and the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles said state election officials “are being complicit in noncitizens voting” and could face charges themselves. Across the three general elections the cases cover, the alleged illegal ballots total about 25 of the 45,071,805 Californians cast. The department says it has charged 113 noncitizens in 20 states in seven weeks.

DHS Illegally Sent Armed Agents to Knock on California Voters’ Doors. DHS launched a “surge” operation led by Homeland Security Investigations — a DHS division that normally handles trafficking and smuggling — on September 1 in which agents were given lists built from state voter files and commercial data, told to clear at least 40 suspected cases each at no more than 12 minutes apiece, and sent for in-person “field interviews” at homes in California and five other states, which agents posted photos and video of themselves conducting. On Oct. 21, a federal judge barred DHS from “elections-related field operations and field interviews” of anyone agents know or should suspect is a citizen in nine states, citing a “high likelihood of error” in the target lists and the Voting Rights Act’s ban on intimidating people who help others vote.