How does a Democrat-registered lawyer with a lengthy roster of elite clientele become a Florida Republican with a single client accused of federal election interference and paying hush money to an adult movie star?
This is the question the New York Times sought to answer in its lengthy profile of former President Donald Trump's top attorney Todd Blanche, which includes warning against drinking the Kool-Aid.
"Many have privately questioned, at social events and in informal alumni gatherings, why [Blanche] would upend his life and risk his reputation for Mr. Trump," the Times profile reported
"Some of Mr. Blanche’s friends said that they had perceived him to be a centrist, law-and-order Democrat, whose politics were so at odds with Mr. Trump that his transition to voting as a Republican was especially jarring."
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Blanche, once a partner in New York City's oldest law firm, now spends his days overseeing Trump's hush money case in Manhattan and his classified documents case in Florida as well as serving as co-counsel in the Washington D.C. election interference case, the Times reports.
In each, the name of Blanches's game has been delay, the Times reports.
While "stalling" has so far proved successful in the federal court cases, New York judge Juan Merchan slapped down a presidential immunity delay demand in a withering rejection issued Wednesday.
"[Merchan] also lambasted Mr. Blanche in a courtroom full of reporters last week, rebuking him for not directly answering a question," the Times notes. "When Mr. Blanche accused the district attorney’s office of prosecutorial misconduct, Justice Merchan questioned how long Mr. Blanche had worked as a prosecutor, implying that he should have known better than to have leveled that claim."
District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against Trump is now slated to go to court on April 15.
The Times discussed Blanche's career gamble with Bruce Green, a Fordham Law School legal ethics professor who praised the Trump lawyer's diligence but raised concerns about his judgment.
“Lots of defendants don’t trust their lawyers, but here there’s obviously a good relationship,” Green told the Times.
“Still, while it’s important to have trust, it’s also important to have a sense of detachment. If you drink the Kool-Aid, so to speak, it could impair your willingness to tell a client hard truths.”
