NEW: DOJ Launches Nationwide War On Fraud With 93 New Prosecutors, ‘Detention Center’

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, making his first appearance at the Justice Department’s lectern, rolled out a new anti-fraud push Tuesday while defending President Donald Trump’s public calls to investigate political opponents.

“We have thousands of ongoing investigations and prosecutions going on in this country right now, and it is true that some of them involve men, women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with and that he believes should be investigated,” Blanche told reporters at the department’s headquarters. “That is his right, and indeed it is his duty to do that.”

Trump elevated Blanche, his former defense attorney and sitting deputy attorney general, after firing Attorney General Pam Bondi last week. The White House has not offered a public explanation for the dismissal, though reporting has pointed to Trump’s frustration with the pace of prosecutions involving his political enemies and how the administration handled the release of Jeffrey Epstein files.

Blanche kept his remarks tightly aligned with Trump’s worldview, brushing aside accusations that the department has been weaponized against the president’s critics. He argued the real abuse of power came when the Justice Department prosecuted Trump during the Biden administration.

He also would not discuss any conversations with Trump and said he did not know why Bondi was fired.

“Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I’m the acting attorney general, except for President Trump,” Blanche said.

The news conference was billed as a fraud crackdown, and Blanche announced a new unit aimed at what he called a growing national “fraud crisis.” He said the department will create the National Fraud Enforcement Division, drawing from top prosecutors in Washington and U.S. attorney’s offices nationwide. The division will be led by Colin McDonald, a longtime federal prosecutor who has also been co-leading the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group in this administration.

Blanche said the task force would rely largely on current personnel, but left open the possibility of hiring more. He also said the department will set up a fraud detection center to help investigators sift through the mountains of records and data that typically bog down major fraud cases.

“We will spare no resources,” Blanche said. “The American people deserve an end to this crisis of fraud.”

Even as Blanche pitched the crackdown as a public-safety and taxpayer-protection mission, the political backdrop was hard to miss.

Trump has complained for months about what he views as slow progress in cases targeting his rivals. Two prosecutions the department brought last year, against former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, were tossed after a judge ruled the prosecutor overseeing them had been illegally appointed. Other efforts, including attempts to bring charges involving Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell and a group of Democratic lawmakers tied to a video urging members of the military to resist illegal orders, were rejected by courts and grand juries.

Other investigations remain active, including work by federal prosecutors in southern Florida examining a case involving former CIA director John O. Brennan. Department lawyers have also been exploring potential charges tied to the 2020 election, an issue Trump continues to raise despite a lack of evidence to support claims it was stolen.

Blanche inherits those ambitions at a moment when the department is also facing staffing strain. More than 3,400 attorneys have left the Justice Department since last year, according to federal personnel data. Some departures followed firings tied to work performed during the previous administration, including on cases related to Trump and to defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.

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Blanche defended the purge Tuesday, saying lawyers who previously investigated the president could not ethically serve under him. He also tried to downplay concern about the attrition, calling turnover normal and saying he is not worried about staffing levels, despite warnings from current and former prosecutors that caseloads are piling up and recruiting has become harder.

For now, Blanche’s status remains temporary. Trump has not said whether he plans to nominate a permanent attorney general, and any nominee would need Senate confirmation. Still, one White House official told The Post last week that Blanche is “very likely” to remain in charge long term.

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With Blanche in place, “right now, the president is happy,” the official said.

Blanche, asked about his own future, said he serves at the pleasure of the president and framed any outcome as a win.

“I did not ask for this job. … If President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else, and I go back to being the deputy attorney general and that’s an honor,” Blanche said. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.”

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