Senior officials clashed in a series of meetings as they struggled to manage a crisis over the president’s refusal to release the documents.

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The president’s top advisers gathered in a series of Situation Room meetings as they struggled to contain a scandal engulfing Donald Trump himself.

The ascendancy of Todd Blanche shows how the practices that were initially deemed out of bounds even in President Trump’s Justice Department seem to be the order of the day.

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The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, doubled down on its request to a federal judge to issue a formal order stopping the fund from being set up.

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Donald Trump hasn’t exactly gotten along well with his attorneys general. Ten days into his first term, for example, the president fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she notified the White House that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn lied about his post-election talks with Vladimir Putin’s government and may be vulnerable to a Russian blackmail campaign.

In the months and years that followed, Trump clashed with Jeff Sessions during his tenure as attorney general, accusing the Alabama Republican of “disloyalty” and being an “idiot.” He later similarly condemned Bill Barr, calling him a “spineless RINO” and a “disappointment in every sense of the word.” The president wasn’t even satisfied with Pam Bondi, complaining that she didn’t move quickly or aggressively enough to meet his partisan demands.

Trump likely believes he’ll have better luck with his latest choice. MS NOW reported:

President Donald Trump on Monday formally nominated his longtime loyalist and former personal defense lawyer Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general permanently.

Blanche has been serving as the nation’s top prosecutor in an acting capacity after Pam Bondi was fired by Trump in April. Blanche was Bondi’s deputy at the time. The nomination has been sent to the Senate.

Since becoming the acting attorney general, Blanche went to almost cartoonish lengths to use his office in ways designed to please the White House, up to and including indicting people the president doesn’t like. Trump, not surprisingly, was delighted. Whether senators are equally impressed remains to be seen, though there’s no reason to assume that his confirmation will be easy.

Stepping back, however, there’s the related question of why Blanche actually wants this job.

With recent history in mind, it’s clear that serving as Trump’s attorney general isn’t easy. A recent Slate piece described it as “the worst job in Trump’s Cabinet,” adding that under the incumbent president, this is an “impossible, degrading, no-win job.”

That might’ve seemed hyperbolic, but it’s grounded in fact: Trump has a very specific vision in mind related to the position, and it’s not pretty. As has become painfully clear, the president wants a partisan loyalist who will serve as his personal tool, using the Justice Department to advance Trump’s goals and interests at all times, under all circumstances, and without regard for any other considerations.

The president, in other words, expects an attorney general who’s part puppet, part weapon and part cheerleader. Those serious about the rule of law and apolitical ethical limits need not apply.

I’ve seen some analyses that have described the office under Trump as “an impossible job,” largely because no one can be quite pathetic enough to satiate all of the president’s whims and demands. It’s a fair point, to be sure, but that’s what makes Blanche’s nomination inherently interesting: He, unlike guys such as Sessions and Barr, doesn’t actually want to lead the DOJ or oversee federal law enforcement; Blanche simply wants to serve Trump.

In other words, Blanche might very well be the first and only attorney general Trump actually gets along with because he and the president share a common view of the office. By tradition, those in this role strive to be “the people’s lawyer.” The president’s new nominee has no such ambitions: His goal is to serve one American, not 340 million Americans.

Blanche has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t want to be the American people’s attorney general; he wants to be Trump’s attorney general. Is it any wonder why the president is optimistic about his choice?

The post Being Trump’s attorney general is an awful job. Todd Blanche apparently doesn’t care. appeared first on MS NOW.

Trump has repeatedly claimed people and groups he opposes are criminals who deserve to be prosecuted.

Trump has repeatedly claimed people and groups he opposes are criminals who deserve to be prosecuted.

As acting attorney general, Todd Blanche has shown a willingness to execute the president’s maximalist demands. Whether the Senate will confirm him remains unclear.

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The push to denaturalize more immigrants is the latest sign that the administration is setting its sights on the legal immigration system.

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The push to investigate what the president’s allies saw as a “deep state” cabal intent on taking him down set off cascading crises, ended careers and undercut the department’s credibility with judges.

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It was the department’s clearest statement to date that it was pulling back from a plan to use taxpayer money to make payments to people who claimed to have been politically persecuted.

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Even as they rebelled against a $1.8 billion fund for President Trump’s allies, Republicans looked the other way as his administration granted him potentially lucrative tax protections.

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The former Trump national security adviser plans to plead guilty to a count of illegal retention of classified information, which could result in a fine and possibly prison time of up to five years.

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Here is what we know about the sexual predator whose secrets spurred an international reckoning over money, power and complicity. Check back for updates.