Todd Blanche

Deputy Attorney General - Overseeing federal response to state lawsuits and Good shooting investigation

States continue challenging federal immigration enforcement on multiple fronts as the legal battle expands beyond state governments to schools and civil rights organizations. U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez denied Minnesota's request for a temporary restraining order against Operation Metro Surge on February 2, 2026, citing insufficient proof of constitutional violations despite acknowledging evidence of racial profiling and excessive force. On February 4, a coalition of Minnesota school districts and educators filed a separate federal lawsuit seeking to block ICE enforcement within 1,000 feet of schools, citing traumatized students, lockdowns, and a 22% spike in daily absences following the January 7 killing of Renee Good. The crisis has escalated with two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens—Renee Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on January 24—prompting the DOJ Civil Rights Division to open a formal investigation into Pretti's death on January 30, now led by the FBI.

Updated Feb 11

U.S. Deputy Attorney General - Announced final Epstein files release on January 30, declaring DOJ compliance complete

Jeffrey Epstein is dead, but his paper trail has created a constitutional crisis. On January 30, 2026, the Justice Department released more than 3 million pages of documents, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images—declaring full compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act despite releasing only about half of the 6 million pages it reviewed. Within hours, attorneys representing hundreds of survivors discovered catastrophic failures: at least 43 victims' full names were exposed, including two dozen who were minors when abused, alongside nearly 40 unredacted nude photos; a Wall Street Journal review found some victim names appeared over 100 times. Attorney Brad Edwards, representing about 300 survivors, called it "literally thousands of mistakes" and potentially "the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history."

Updated Feb 4

Deputy Attorney General - Overseeing decision not to investigate ICE and Border Patrol shootings

Three Minnesota congresswomen walked into a Minneapolis ICE detention center on January 10, were allowed entry, then were ordered out minutes later. They'd come to inspect conditions after an ICE agent shot 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good in the head three days earlier during what the Trump administration called the largest immigration enforcement operation ever. DHS cited a seven-day notice rule that a federal judge had already blocked as illegal—a policy DHS Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed the day after Good's killing. When Democrats sought emergency court intervention, Judge Jia Cobb refused to block the policy on January 20, ruling on procedural grounds while explicitly declining to find the policy lawful.

Updated Jan 30