Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche used his first public remarks since the ouster of his predecessor, Pam Bondi, to unveil an aggressive new anti-fraud initiative while also signaling a more combative, personally hands-on style atop the Justice Department.
At a wide-ranging press conference at DOJ headquarters on Tuesday, Blanche praised Bondi at the outset, calling her “a great patriot to this country” and crediting her with helping make “our streets safer” through efforts targeting violent crime, drug cartels, and departmental reform. He said Bondi remains a close ally and indicated the two are still working through the transition together, including a previously-scheduled trip on Wednesday to the Nebraska Avenue Complex for an event discussing her animal initiatives.
But the event also underscored a noticeable change in tone from Bondi’s tenure. Blanche took more than a dozen questions from reporters across the room and called on them himself, rather than relying on aides to manage the exchange, projecting a more authoritative and less stage-managed presence than his predecessor often did.
The formal purpose of the press conference was to discuss fraud enforcement. Blanche said the department is handling more than 8,000 fraud matters nationwide and highlighted several cases this week alone involving guilty pleas from defendants involved in healthcare and COVID-19 fraud schemes totaling more than half a billion dollars.
“These cases represent a fraction of the fraud ripping off our country every day,” Blanche said.
To address that, Blanche announced the creation of a National Fraud Enforcement Division, a centralized unit that would bring together prosecutors focused on healthcare fraud, tax fraud, benefits fraud, and corporate fraud. He also said each U.S. attorney’s office nationwide will contribute to the push, amounting to 93 additional prosecutors devoted to fraud enforcement across the country, all of which will be led by Colin McDonald, assistant attorney general for the National Fraud Enforcement Division.
Blanche further announced the launch of a prosecutor-led National Fraud Detention Center, a multi-agency data analytics hub designed to identify and track complex fraud schemes involving taxpayer-funded programs. He said the effort will work closely with inspectors general and agencies across the federal government, including the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.
Asked by the Washington Examiner about online videos and viral posts from earlier this year highlighting alleged fraud, Blanche said the DOJ does not dismiss public-facing tips and that many cases begin through referrals from ordinary citizens, investigators, or journalists.
WEX’s Justice Department reporter @KaelanDC questions Acting AG Todd Blanche on excluding any “leads” to assist in the new fraud unit. https://t.co/r3t6MLup3D pic.twitter.com/QBDlZzGGMF
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 7, 2026
“If you were an FBI agent, you should be willing to take a tip from anywhere,” he said.
Still, some of the most revealing moments came during Blanche’s exchanges on politics, weaponization, and his own future.
Asked how he would balance Trump’s calls to investigate perceived political enemies with the administration’s stated goal of ending DOJ weaponization, Blanche rejected the premise that communications between the president and the DOJ were improper, adding that Trump “wants justice.” He said some investigations naturally involve people or entities Trump has “had issues with” and added that the president has both a “right” and a “duty” to lead on those matters.
Blanche also forcefully defended President Donald Trump’s long-standing claims that the DOJ was weaponized under President Joe Biden, arguing that the department had been used against Trump in an unprecedented fashion.
At one point, he said Trump had been indicted four times by the federal government, counting superseding indictments in both the classified documents case in Florida and the election case in Washington, D.C. When a reporter pressed him on that characterization, Blanche shot back, “Am I breaking news?”
The exchange highlighted how, at times, Blanche appeared to straddle his current role as the nation’s top law enforcement officer and his previous job as Trump’s personal defense attorney.
Blanche also pushed back on media speculation surrounding Bondi’s firing. When one reporter suggested “nobody knows” why Bondi was removed, Blanche said that only Trump can fully explain his own personnel decisions.
TRUMP NAMES NOMINEE TO LEAD DOJ’S NEW FRAUD ENFORCEMENT DIVISION
When asked whether he wants the job permanently, Blanche said, “I did not ask for this job,” but made clear he is willing to serve however Trump sees fit. “I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime,” Blanche said, adding that if Trump ultimately chooses someone else to lead the DOJ, his response would be, “I love you, sir.”
The debut press conference offered an early picture of a DOJ under Blanche that may be more centralized on white-collar enforcement, more openly aligned with Trump’s political framing, and more willing to discard the perception of distance that attorneys general have often tried to maintain from the president they serve.
