The Story Doesn’t End With Todd Blanche’s Letter. It Starts There.
The Story Doesn’t End With Todd Blanche’s Letter. It Starts There.The Senate got its letter. Washington moved on. I picked up the phone—and what I’m hearing suggests this fight may not be over.
For seven years, one sentence has guided everything I’ve done. It guided me when I was inside Donald Trump’s orbit. It guided me through impeachment. It guided me when I became a whistleblower. And it’s still the first question I ask every time Washington celebrates another political “victory.” Don’t watch what they say. Watch what they do. That mindset is how I survived inside Trump’s political world. It’s how I learned that the public performance is almost never the real meeting. It’s how I came to understand that the most important decisions usually happen after the cameras are gone. And it’s exactly why I’m looking at Todd Blanche’s letter very differently than most of Washington. The headlines tell you Todd Blanche made concessions. The headlines tell you skeptical Republican senators were satisfied. The headlines tell you there is now an agreement. But I’ve spent enough years watching Washington to know that politicians love declaring victory before anyone knows whether anything actually changed. So let’s slow down. What actually happened? Todd Blanche provided written assurances that addressed concerns raised by Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis regarding the proposed Justice Department settlement, the controversial anti-weaponization fund, and related legal questions. Those assurances helped secure enough Republican support for his confirmation to move forward.
That’s the public story. Now ask yourself one question. Where is Donald Trump’s signature? Because I haven’t seen one. Donald Trump didn’t personally sign those commitments. He didn’t publicly bind himself to them. He didn’t surrender any future political options. Instead, Washington largely treated the controversy as settled because a letter existed. Public reporting has noted that legal observers, former Justice Department officials, and lawmakers have questioned how durable these commitments would be and whether future Justice Department leadership could revisit them. Then there was Donald Trump himself. Even as these negotiations were unfolding, he continued publicly signaling support for many of the broader objectives that sparked this controversy in the first place.
That should make everyone stop and think. Because if the central political figure behind an agenda hasn’t personally committed to abandoning it, it’s fair to ask whether today’s compromise is permanent—or simply temporary. Especially if you’ve spent years watching how this political operation works. Todd Blanche wasn’t just another lawyer I watched from afar. He was part of my defense team before I made the decision to replace him. He later continued representing my former co-defendant, Igor Fruman, after our legal paths separated. So when I watch Todd Blanche navigate political pressure, I’m not analyzing someone from a distance. I’m watching someone I’ve worked with personally. Which brings me back to the only question I think actually matters. Did anything fundamentally change? Or was the immediate political problem simply postponed? Because those are two very different things. And history tells us they’re often confused. So I picked up the phone. I called people who are still inside Trump’s political world. I asked one simple question. “Is this really over…or is everyone simply waiting for a better political moment?” The answers I received all pointed in the same direction. That’s where this story changes... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Lev Remembers to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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