x
SUMMARY: The confirmation of Todd Blanche as U.S. attorney general has raised a fundamental question about the future of the Justice Department: How much independence should the nation’s top law-enforcement agency have from the president it serves?
(The Slice News): The aberrant leadership of Pres. Donald Trump becoming more normalized was of grave concern to Democratic leaders during the confirmation hearing of Todd Blanche. Now the new Attorney General and former Trump attorney has made it clear in an interview in Meet the Press that their fears were warranted. His position is a presidentially appointed role yet the Department of Justice is expected to function independently. Asked about the president pardoning Jan. 6ers he said the any president's pardoning powers are "unlimited."
The attorney general is a presidentially appointed Cabinet official and ultimately answers to the president as head of the executive branch. But American law-enforcement tradition has developed strong norms intended to prevent the president from using federal prosecutors as political instruments to do favors.
Those norms became especially important after Watergate, when the country confronted the dangers of presidential interference with criminal investigations. The expectation has been that prosecutors should make decisions based on law, evidence and established Justice Department policies — not political loyalty