Todd Blanche once served as Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer.

Now he is awaiting Senate confirmation to become attorney general of the United States—and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance says the distinction between those two jobs may already have disappeared.

“He’s functioning as the president’s criminal defense attorney,” Vance warned.

“That is not the job of the Attorney General.”

Her comments came during a Substack interview with Mary Trump, the president’s niece and a prominent critic of his administration.

Vance delivered a sweeping indictment of Blanche’s conduct and the condition of the Justice Department, arguing that the institution has reached a point of unprecedented danger.

“The Attorney General represents the American people, not the president,” she said.

That principle is not merely ceremonial.

The attorney general is nominated by the president and serves within the executive branch, but the office oversees federal prosecutors, law-enforcement priorities and some of the most politically sensitive investigations in the country.

The attorney general must therefore carry out the administration’s lawful policies without treating the Justice Department as the president’s private law firm.

Vance believes Blanche has failed that test.

Her criticism carries particular weight because she previously served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. She understands the internal culture of federal prosecution and the ethical obligations imposed on Justice Department lawyers.

But her statements remain her professional and political assessment.

No court has ruled that Blanche is legally functioning as Trump’s personal attorney while serving the government, and his defenders would strongly reject the allegation that he has abandoned the rule of law.

They could argue that an attorney general is entitled to support the president’s constitutional agenda, defend executive authority and reverse policies adopted by a previous administration.

Vance sees something more dangerous.

She noted that Blanche was once respected by former colleagues in the Southern District of New York.

“Todd Blanche was once regarded very highly by many of the lawyers who worked with him,” she said. “They considered him a good lawyer and a good person.”

“Somewhere along the way, though, he lost his way.”

The personal element makes her criticism especially severe.

Vance is not describing Blanche as an incompetent outsider who never understood prosecutorial independence. She is arguing that he knew the norms, possessed the professional training to recognize them and chose to compromise them anyway.

She contrasted his trajectory with attorneys who sacrificed their positions rather than carry out directives they believed violated their legal or ethical obligations.

“We watched respected attorneys in the Southern District of New York lose their careers because they refused to compromise their professional ethics,” Vance said.

“Todd Blanche remained fully complicit throughout all of it.”

The exact episodes underlying that accusation were not detailed in the article provided, and “complicit” is Vance’s characterization rather than a formal legal finding.

But the broader concern is clear.

If senior Justice Department lawyers learn that loyalty to Trump produces promotions while professional resistance ends careers, the institution’s incentives change.

Prosecutors may begin asking what the president wants before asking what the evidence supports.

Investigations involving Trump’s allies could disappear. Cases involving his opponents could receive exceptional attention. Legal opinions could be shaped to justify presidential demands rather than constrain them.

Even the perception of that system would damage public trust.

Federal prosecutors exercise enormous power. They can subpoena records, convene grand juries, obtain search warrants and seek prison sentences. Their legitimacy depends on the belief that those powers are directed by law and evidence—not presidential revenge.

Vance argued that Blanche believes in the “rule of Donald Trump” and an all-powerful version of the presidency under the unitary-executive theory.

That constitutional theory generally emphasizes the president’s control over the executive branch. Its supporters argue that elected presidents must be able to direct the officials responsible for implementing their policies.

Critics warn that an extreme version can erase safeguards intended to prevent law enforcement from becoming a personal instrument of the White House.

Blanche’s confirmation would not formally abolish the Justice Department’s rules, career staff or judicial oversight. Courts could still reject unlawful prosecutions, Congress could investigate misconduct and attorneys could resign or expose abuses.

But Vance fears those protections are being hollowed out from within.

“I honestly don’t know that there are enough adjectives available to describe how dangerous this is,” she said.

Then she abandoned adjectives for a verdict.

“This is the end of the Department of Justice as we’ve known it.”

The Senate can confirm Blanche and call him attorney general.

Vance’s warning is that he may never stop acting like Donald Trump’s lawyer.