U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis said Thursday she supports President Donald Trump’s troubled nominee for attorney general, Todd Blanche, despite a letter from 71 Wyoming attorneys opposing his confirmation.
A person holding the highest law enforcement post in the country, as leader of the Department of Justice, the attorney general must possess “extraordinary judgement and integrity, as well as the independence and fundamental leadership qualities necessary to captain the enormous ship of the Department of Justice,” the July 16 letter to Republican U.S. Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso states.
“In his time of service as the acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has demonstrated that he does not have any of those necessary qualities,” the letter reads.
The letter includes 187 pages of court decisions adverse to Blanche including a court order in Trump’s infamous suit against the IRS in which the parties settled for an anti-weaponization fund of $1,776 billion. Blanche, who was formerly Trump’s private defense attorney, played key roles in forging the settlement.
“No ethical lawyer worth his salt would be a part of this colossal abuse of our judicial system.”
Wyoming Rule of Law Group
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami ruled that the scheme was “an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement [to] earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law.”
“No ethical lawyer worth his salt would be a part of this colossal abuse of our judicial system,” the Wyoming lawyers wrote to their senators.
Judge Williams directed her order to be mailed to the New York Bar, of which Blanche is a member, for possible disciplinary action.
Barrasso did not respond to a request for comment on the lawyers’ letter. Lummis did.
“Todd Blanche has done an extraordinary job as Acting Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General and has spent years fighting against liberal lawfare that targeted conservatives and President Trump,” an email from her spokesperson Joe Jackson reads. “Senator Lummis has personally sat down with Acting AG Blanche twice and will vote to confirm this qualified nominee.”
Barrasso told Oil City News that he met with Blanche this week and that he’s “confident if confirmed, Mr. Blanche will be an effective U.S. Attorney General.”
Rule of Law Group
The letter was written and signed by members of the Rule of Law Group — 200 Wyoming attorneys who began organizing after Jan. 6., said Bill Schwartz, a fourth-generation Wyoming native who grew up in Casper, graduated from the University of Wyoming Law School and lived in Cheyenne before settling in Jackson.
Without the rule of law, democracy fails, he said. “It’s at the foundation of everything we aspire to.”
“If there are not rules that we all respect and there are not adjudicators of the rules that we all respect, it just becomes might-is-right,” he said. “It’s so unbelievable to us how quickly our people have been ready to just throw the independence of the judiciary under the bus and blame judges for trying to undermine the executive authority.”
After the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, the Rule of Law Group wanted to speak out. “We thought we should say something,” to support the poll workers, Capitol defenders, then-Rep. Liz Cheney and others who defended the bedrock democratic principle, Schwartz said. But because lawyers in Wyoming are required to join the state bar association, that group cannot engage in political debate, he said.
“The U.S. Supreme Court said [the Wyoming State Bar] can’t get involved in political issues,” Schwartz said.
“I understand the rule,” Schwartz said of the prohibition. But the lawyers needed “an association where we are free to speak our minds.”
“We’ve been asleep at the wheel … and not really doing much in the political realm in Wyoming,” he said. The group wrote its first essay after the Jan. 6 attack to overturn the presidential election results and has written numerous op-eds, and private and public letters to the Wyoming delegation, he said.
Lawmakers are not ensuring the foundation of democracy remains intact, he said.
“We don’t have our legislative branch supporting our judicial branch,” Schwartz said. “In fact, they just piled on, undermining the credibility of our whole system of laws, precedents and respect for courts.”
“Piling on” comes as federal judges in particular are receiving threats “not just to them but their families,” he said.
Lummis’ first act as a U.S. senator, the first woman senator from the Equality State, was “to throw out the votes of I don’t know how many Pennsylvanians,” Schwartz said. Lummis was one of a handful of GOP senators who objected on Jan. 7, 2021, to certifying the vote of electors in Pennsylvania. She released a statement explaining that she had “serious concerns about election integrity, especially in Pennsylvania,” but that the attack on the Capitol had overshadowed that debate.
The lawyers’ letter, one sentence longer than two pages, not counting the 71 signatures and attachments, asks Barrasso and Lummis to explain “how you could justify dismissing the very serious factual evidence of [Blanche’s] lack of qualifications, judgment, and independence” if they do back Blanche.
Among the signers of the July 16 letter to the senators are retired judges “sworn to uphold the Constitution,” including former chief justices of the Wyoming Supreme Court, several former Wyoming attorneys general, many retired district and circuit court judges, and dozens of practicing and retired lawyers, the Rule of Law Group said in a statement.
(WyoFile board member Susan Stubson signed this letter. She was not involved in the production of this story, and neither she nor any member of the WyoFile board have authority to direct news coverage or news content.)
According to “Wyoming News”:
“Zero votes were thrown out by Cynthia Lummis in Pennsylvania’s 2020 election. As a U.S. Senator from Wyoming, Lummis possessed no authority to discard or invalidate individual ballots cast in Pennsylvania. Her involvement was limited to casting one of eight Senate votes to object to the certification of Pennsylvania’s electoral results based on unsubstantiated claims of irregularities, an effort that failed in a 92-8 vote and did not alter the outcome.” She didn’t “throw out” any votes… Further, (per above)
“one of just a handful of dissenting votes in the 92-8 result” to certify the election.
It’s this sort of hyperbole and non-truths that perpetuate the public’s distrust of our political representatives.
The GOP, along with Barrasso and Lumis, has sold out our country and has forgotten their oath to the Constitution. They have folded to a want to be dictatior .
“Are you not entertained”
Partisan politics keeps the nation divided.
If it resides in Wash DC, it is rotten to the core.
R or D after the name is irrelevant.
Folks, don’t forget that Lummis was part of the “Artic Frost” investigation of phone records concerning the January 6th riots. She’s been a loyal Trumpist for years. Unfortunately nearly all Republican Congressional members have developed a “go along, to get along” mentality. It is sad to see how low our ethical standards have slipped.
Why haven’t we heard of kakistocracy since the beginning of Trumpism. It is a perfect fit. Thanks for the vocabulary lesson.
Lummis is not running for re-election. The ”Hag” wants her seat on the Washington gravy train. A worse alternative would be hard to find if you were to search anywhere but the reddest state in the U.S.! Her representation of us is likely to happen so those with any sense of morality better hang on to your hats. It’s a foul wind gonna blow!
The performance of our three Trump “suck ups”should be a warning to anyone planning on voting in the midterm primaries; that any candidate that is endorsed by Trump or claims to be a diehard supporter should not be considered for office in the state.
Three traitors only concerned with propping up trump. They don’t seem to care about Wy.
Receiving advice from the many holds no quarter. Despotism is the order of the day.
First, Barrasso was Mitch McConnell’s lapdog and now he is Donald Trump’s lapdog. He has never represented Wyoming. His only concern is Washington DC power and money. Lummis is the same. I am disappointed that Wyoming voters don’t realize how corrupt and unlawful this president is. Degrading Biden does not change that. I
Lummis and Barrasso are cowards. Blanche is trumps puppet now and was before, he has no place in the DOJ. He is incompetent also, the DOJ can’t win a case because they are all weak because they are all for trumps childish revenge.
The fact that these 71 lawyers didn’t speak out against Biden’s pick Garland disqualifies their opinion now.
What did Garland do that they would have needed to speak out against?
Did biden have 1.8b set aside for traitors?
Did biden try to get all his family and their businesses exempt from the IRS?
Didn’t think so… your comparison is ridiculous. Quit supporting liars and grifters
Please explain your reticence about Metrics Garland.
Please explain why you think the 2 nominations are comparable.
Simple one word answer for that question…
EPSTEIN
Reasoning??? The Senate confirmed Garland as U.S. Attorney General under President Joe Biden by a 70–30 vote, with 20 Republicans joining all voting Democrats to support him. I guess there were still Republicans that could thing for themselves back then.
Comparing apples to oranges got nothing on your contrasting of avocados and horse muffins.
Merrick Garland had nothing much to criticize by the legal community. He was just not allowed to be nominated for purely political reasons, i.e blockaded by Mitch McConnell for being an Obama appointee in a presidential election year. That’s it. Prove me wrong.
Well said.
Blanche represents the epitome’ of DC corruption and it should be pretty obvious by now that our 3 stooges are tainted as well. Regarding Barasso, have you ever seen anyone at anytime in American history have his nose buried in the ass of someone (Trumpstein)??? If Chump were to ever have his mug carved into Rushmore (he won’t), Barasso also should be there, with his nose deep in you know what
It’s worth remembering that on Jan. 7th, Lummis told us that the Capitol rioters were antifa activists in disguise. To my knowledge, she has never corrected that statement.
It is obvious that we do not have responsible representatives of the voters of Wyoming in Dr. Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis. Who do they represent? One draws the conclusion that they both are benefiting from big $ and could care less about integrity and the average citizen they supposedly represent. Shame!!
Time to vote in Representatives that listen to their people instead of ignoring constituents phone calls, emails and concerns. We need representatives that show up for Wyoming. Not fill their own pockets with our money.
Wyoming has over 3,000 active and inactive members of the bar. Since part of the 71 are inactive right now you have to use that number which means that less than 2% of Wyoming lawyers signed this letter. Less than 2%. Even if you only count active lawyers it’s less than 5%. The only time 2 to 5% of people ever meant anything was when the transgender debate happened. 2 to 5% is not democracy.
Some of the lawyers against the chrump traitor fund have forgotten more than Blanche will ever know.
Why are you for payouts to insurrectionists?
Actually, your statement doesn’t mean a thing.
It’s inactive lawyers who feel safe voicing their opinion since “Cancel Culture” is strong for those that defy Frumps wishes and active lawyers have businesses to run. Also – I believe that too often when Republicans are faced with people disagreeing with them their response would be something like “your job is a lawyer, we don’t want your political opinions!”.
Very Very sad that our representatives have no regard for what their constituents want. Are they mesmerized by something or someone?
In order to have a kleptocracy, the government needs to first be a kakistocracy. Trump, his enablers (all three of our electees), sycophants, and the heritage foundation have accomplished this goal. That’s the essential purpose of confirming Blanche. Trump and family, and minions, are filling their pockets as fast as they can.
I had to look it up but kakistocracy is a word that suits our current delegation to a t.
– except our Senators Barrasso and Lummis aren’t backing Todd Blanche nearly as much as they are backing Donald J. Trump , which is far, far worse…
Barrasso and Lummis do not have country’s, or constitution’s, best interest in their considerations. Rule of Law?, applies to everyone? .. . HAHA. Our senators are people with low integrity who are more than anything else, self-serving. They know how to grab what they can get before the boss moves out.
Have wyoming’s three stooges been promised a cut of the 1.8b set aside for the traitors and insurrectionists?
Cynthia wants a payout from the slush fund the corrupt President is orchestrating through his corrupt nominee to run the DOJ. She nor Barrasso are fit to be Senators, but that is just a reflection of the low information GOP voters that cast their ballots for these terrible people.
You know our three ‘reps’ are reprehensible. They’ll go down in history as the worst. These three goofballs do not have any integrity or good judgement.
But worse reps are probably the way . . .