As we discussed here, “Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, scorched Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Justice, now led by his own former criminal defense lawyer, for asking a federal appeals court to vacate the Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. In other words, to erase the record altogether.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was asked about this latest attempt at whitewashing this administration’s vile history by CNN’s Dana Bash this Sunday, and Blanche refused to rule it out, and when asked whether he was comfortable personally with vacating their sentences, basically said his job was to bow down to Dear Leader.
BASH: Before I let you go, sir, do you plan to vacate convictions of members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were involved in the January 6th attack on the Capitol?
BLANCHE: So that’s ongoing litigation that, as you know, the Supreme Court recently sent the case back to the district court judge. I expect you’ll hear from us in the coming days about how we’re going to proceed. Their sentences were commuted by President Trump on January 20th, and we’ll go from there.
BASH: You’re not ruling it out?
BLANCHE: I didn’t hear that. Say it again. Sorry.
BASH: So you’re not ruling it out, vacating their convictions?
BLANCHE: No, we’re not ruling anything out right now, and there’s a lot of factors that go into a decision like that, including the fact that the president commuted their sentences. And so where my job is as the acting Attorney General is to make sure that we do the right thing in light of all of all the facts and circumstances. And that is exactly what we’re going to do.
BASH: And just again, real quick on this, as the current top law enforcement official in the federal government, you’re comfortable with even the notion of vacating sentences of people who were convicted of the attack on the Capitol on January 6, convicted through the court system?
BLANCHE: Well, they were convicted, that is true, but president Trump, as is his right and as is his duty under our Constitution, commuted or pardoned those individuals.
BASH: Right, that’s separate from vacating, as you well know.
BLANCHE: Right, but my job as Attorney General is to effectuate… whether they were pardoned, whether they were commuted, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. This isn’t about my comfort level or anything like that. It’s about me doing the right thing in light of what the president has directed.
BASH: Okay. And you personally think that would be the right thing to do?
BLANCHE: When you say that would be the right thing to do, I don’t know what you’re speaking about directly, but listen, there’s a… on January 20th, on January 20th, president Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of the individuals that were convicted or had cases pending from the events of January 6th.
The work that the Department of Justice has done since that time is to effectuate what President Trump did, what he is allowed to do, and what he had every right to do. And so what we’re going to continue to do is make sure that we effectuate his… what he directed on January 20th of last year.
