In January 2025, after President Donald Trump’s then-lead defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, was nominated to be deputy attorney general, a group of 116 lawyers sent a letter to Senate leaders.

The lawyers — each of whom served alongside Blanche in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York between 2006 and 2014 — described themselves as both diverse in their post-SDNY professional lives and in their leanings, politically, legally and intellectually.  The list includes lawyers who, since their career Department of Justice service, have been appointed to senior Justice Department posts by both Republicans and Democrats. 

This diverse group, united in their support, as they put it, called Blanche a “fundamentally good and decent man,” and told the senators who were voting on Blanche’s nomination that he embodied the DOJ’s values: “Independence, impartiality, honesty, integrity, respect, excellence, and a fierce dedication to fairness under the law.”

In an office with roughly 220 lawyers in both its civil and criminal divisions, getting more than 100 people who served with Blanche in the Southern District of New York’s criminal division to sign the 2025 letter was not only a labor of love, but somewhat of a feat, as one person who signed the letter explained. 

But since Blanche, who has been acting attorney general since Pam Bondi’s firing in April, was officially nominated for the post last month, the SDNY community has been relatively silent. He faces the Senate Judiciary Committee this week in his bid to secure the job permanently.

MS NOW reached out to 80 of the 116 lawyers who signed the 2025 letter to ask whether they have been asked to sign a similar letter or otherwise publicly show support for Blanche, whether they would do so, and why or why not. 

Multiple former prosecutors who signed the first letter spoke to MS NOW on condition of anonymity because they fear retribution for speaking honestly about their former colleague. Each confirmed that to the best of their knowledge, there are no such letters in the works as Blanche approaches his nomination hearings. 

“The absence of any groundswell to submit a letter says a lot,” one person said. 

Only 10 former colleagues agreed to speak to MS NOW about Blanche himself. Some of them knew Blanche well as both a colleague and friend; others described him as more of an acquaintance who was known to be as affable as he was smart. One person who puts themselves in the latter category explained that they signed the 2025 letter because “compared to possible options at the time, he seemed like a relatively sane one.” 

Three of the people said any new letter of support would be unlikely to generate many  signatures — which might embarrass Blanche, who has lost substantial goodwill and even dear friendships among SDNY alumni.  That loss, said the people, came after Blanche’s full-throated defense of both Department cases and Trump’s broader agenda.

Another person noted that any organized effort to support Blanche now could also backfire on any SDNY alumni behind such an effort. “I would never, ever … put myself in that position,” the person told MS NOW.

Two people said they would sign another letter or give Blanche their public support today as they did in 2025.  

That year, Ilan Graff, a 10-year SDNY veteran and former Deputy U.S. Attorney, took on the job of organizing support for Blanche through the letter, according to multiple people MS NOW spoke with. Those people say he remains close to Graff, who is now in private practice. Graff declined comment about both the prior letter and Blanche generally.

One Blanche supporter noted that he is likely doing “the hardest job in the country right now.” 

“Someone has to be the attorney general. And of all of the people who are in a position to be picked, Todd is the best among them. I trust him to both aggressively pursue the administration’s policies and push back when necessary,” that person said.

The other former colleague noted Blanche is the best choice for this administration, full of “substance and experience” and adding that as a result of his representation of Trump in several multiple criminal cases, Blanche genuinely believes the president had been a victim of political weaponization.

“He’s still the same guy. He has not lost who he is.” 

Other former colleagues who spoke with MS NOW had nuanced views of Blanche, noting his solid judgment and legal acumen — but also providing examples of when and how he disappointed them since rejoining the Justice Department.

One former SDNY prosecutor said he respected Blanche’s choice to represent Trump and how he handled himself at the 2024 trial of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s so-called hush money case. Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to conceal a 2016 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Although a court gave Trump an “unconditional discharge” from any payments, fines or prison time, he continues to appeal his conviction in New York state court and challenge a federal court’s decision not to hear the matter in federal court. 

“Sometimes, you can’t treat the judge as a fair participant because you have to make a record. You’re not making friends,” the person said, referencing Blanche’s sometimes contentious exchanges with Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan. 

But when asked if the person would sign another letter on Blanche’s behalf, they responded, “I have not been pleased with his performance across the board.” 

Another also defended Blanche’s performance as Trump’s then-lead defense lawyer, saying in their view, “Todd conducted himself honorably” during the Bragg trial.

That lawyer also said that like Blanche, they see the various criminal cases against Trump, both state and federal, as both political mistakes and legally “wrongheaded.” Trump’s conduct leading up to and on January 6 was “odious and unpatriotic, but not a crime,” they said.

Yet the person also believes Blanche has become “a pariah” in the same circles where he was once adored. 

A third former SDNY prosecutor said, “Todd is a wonderful person. Even people who are opposed to him now would say that he is a fun, nice guy.” But that same person demurred when asked if they would publicly support Blanche again now.  

“That’s very complicated. I don’t have a good understanding of what is happening at the White House and DOJ. It’s easy to criticize from the outside and it’s hard if you don’t know what the denominator is. There’s no shortage of people who would take that job.”

That lawyer also said they believed allegations of Blanche weaponizing the DOJ cut both ways, citing the number of Jan. 6 defendants prosecuted for “petty offenses for political reasons.” Because DOJ prosecuted “200 people for trespassing” and similar crimes, the person said, “20 truly evil people got pardoned.”

Some of Blanche’s former colleagues acknowledged that in many cases, he did not appear to push back against controversial investigations, cases, or policies that have struck them as politically motivated and not led by the facts and the law.

Recommended

One person said they would no longer sign a letter supporting Blanche because he has used the DOJ not only “to go after Trump’s personal enemies,” but also “to pursue the president’s agenda in a way that is outside the norms for DOJ.”

One person said Blanche appears to be responsible for “some insane charging decisions,” such as the now-dismissed mortgage fraud case against New York Attorney General Letitia James and the “nonsense” prosecution of former Olympian David Hearn, who has been charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.

Another former prosecutor said their disenchantment with Blanche began much earlier, when in February 2025, senior DOJ leaders agreed to dismiss the prosecution of former New York City Mayor Eric Adams over the objections of the then-U.S. attorney and her career prosecutors. 

Blanche, who had not yet been confirmed, nonetheless attended a hearing and sat in the front of the courtroom, sending a message, they said, that he supported Adams and then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove over the career lawyers who later resigned or were fired.

And then came the DOJ’s prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey, who also once served as SDNY’s U.S. attorney. While one of those cases has been dismissed, DOJ is appealing that decision while it prosecutes a second, more recent indictment of him for posting a picture of seashells spelling “86 47” on social media.    

Multiple people who spoke with MS NOW cited the prosecution of Comey as a reason they could no longer support Blanche.

Referring to the seashells case, which was brought only after Blanche became acting attorney general, that person said, “Todd knows Comey was not threatening to kill the president. That he would tout that [indictment] is absurd.”

But some of those who spoke to MS NOW also raised other, less-obvious examples of why they have found Blanche’s leadership of the DOJ troubling. 

One person recalled Blanche posting a picture of the now-dismissed criminal indictment of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia on social media with the caption, “Welcome home.” That, in this former prosecutor’s mind, was “bush league” and “classless” but more disturbing, evidence of a vindictive — and unconstitutional — prosecution.

And another former prosecutor told MS NOW they take issue with Blanche’s leadership on immigration, including the DOJ’s position that undocumented immigrants can be detained indefinitely without bond, as well as his public support of the White House’s takeover of the pardon process, something that person noted as “absolute, total corruption.”

Still, that person said Blanche is “deeply hurt” by what he perceives as “the lack of support from the SDNY community” and their embrace of fellow Southern District alumnus Bragg, who led the only successful prosecution of Trump to date. 

“People love Alvin like they loved Todd,” they said.

Another person acknowledged that for Blanche, the rifts with former colleagues feel inexplicably personal. That person described Blanche’s thinking as, “If we disagree about politics, why can’t we have a beer?” 

For many, it appears to be a conversation they simply would prefer not to have. After all, of the 80 people who signed the 2025 letter to whom MS NOW reached out, 13 answered and then declined to discuss Blanche. Some cited risks to or policies of their law firms or other employers; others gave no explanation.

But the rationales offered by two former prosecutors could explain why so few responded at all.

One former prosecutor worried that reporting about Blanche’s now-fraught relations with his former SDNY colleagues could harm anyone who publicly supported Blanche in 2025 and who now has clients before the Justice Department.

A second expressed their fear that records reflecting communications with MS NOW could be obtained by the DOJ, which has issued subpoenas to several news outlets, including The New York Times, after substantially revising the department’s policy on obtaining records from the media.

The fear of potential retribution could be one reason why only a handful of Blanche’s former SDNY colleagues signed a letter from more than 1,200 former DOJ employees opposing his nomination. By contrast, on Tuesday, the White House touted a letter of support signed by nearly 80 former DOJ officials, but it is unclear how many, if any, of those signatories served with Blanche at SDNY.

Two former prosecutors told MS NOW that Blanche has been so isolated among his former SDNY colleagues that a text chain he maintains with a small number of friends from that office has a title that reflects — perhaps humorously — that they are the only ones he still has. 

That turn of events in just one year’s time has saddened at least one of Blanche’s former colleagues.  

“It’s heartbreaking both as someone who knew and liked Todd and cares about the DOJ.”

Lisa Rubin

Lisa Rubin is MS NOW’s senior legal reporter and a former litigator.