DOJ Ethics Official Advised Blanche to Recuse from Trump Cases

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was formally advised by the Justice Department's top ethics official in March 2025 to recuse himself from legal cases involving President Donald Trump, his former personal client, according to people familiar with the matter.

The guidance came less than two weeks after Blanche assumed the role of deputy attorney general. Joseph Tirrell, then the department's top ethics lawyer, provided Blanche and his deputy at the time, Emil Bove, with a printed PowerPoint presentation outlining ethics requirements during a briefing. A former senior DOJ ethics official described the meeting, which marked the first formal notification to Blanche on the need for recusal from matters where Trump had a personal interest, such as cases where he might serve as a witness. Blanche signed an ethics pledge following the session, committing to avoid participation for at least one year in department matters involving past clients of his former law firm, which represented Trump in federal criminal cases over classified documents in Florida and alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Those cases were dismissed before full resolution.