President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House after a shooting incident outside the ballroom at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, Saturday, April 25, 2026, as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel listen (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana).
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is now the subject of a bar complaint filed with authorities in New York, according to a nonprofit government watchdog that is requesting an investigation.
The 11-page complaint is premised on Blanche's role in the Trump administration's failed efforts to prosecute Kilmar Abrego Garcia for human smuggling in the Tennessee federal court system.
"Blanche's conduct potentially violated numerous Rules of Professional Conduct," the complaint reads. "Blanche's conduct in connection with the Abrego Garcia matter is a serious abuse of public office, undermines the integrity of the Department of Justice, and erodes public confidence in the legal profession and in the fair administration of justice."
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr., a Barack Obama appointee, determined the evidence before the court "sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power." The court went on to dismiss the indictment – finding the prosecution vindictive and selective.
"The Court does not reach its conclusion lightly," Crenshaw wrote in the memorandum opinion. "The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego's successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution."
The since-shuttered crusade against Abrego Garcia stemmed from untoward efforts by Blanche himself, the judge said.
Specifically, the court found that the underlying criminal investigation — in which Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding in November 2022 — was closed long ago and only reopened due to then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's "now unrebutted public statements tying the reopened investigation to Abrego's successful lawsuit," which the judge said, "taints the investigation with a vindictive motive."
The bar complaint seizes on the court's analysis tying the government's criminal prosecution to Abrego Garcia successfully vindicating his habeas corpus rights and winning his return to the country after an illegal summary deportation flight in which he and others were sent to a prison notorious for torture in El Salvador.
The nonprofit is not shy that the bar complaint is largely, if not entirely, based on the court's ruling in which Crenshaw "placed responsibility directly on Mr. Blanche," a press release says.
Those allegations do hold water. In the opinion, Crenshaw writes that Blanche "started the investigation to implicate Abrego" to "justify the Executive Branch's decision to remove him to El Salvador."
"A federal judge found that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche personally launched a criminal prosecution not to enforce the law, but to provide cover for the administration after Mr. Abrego Garcia fought against his illegal deportation to El Salvador where he was imprisoned in CECOT," Campaign for Accountability Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said in a statement announcing the bar complaint. "It is imperative that the New York Bar hold Mr. Blanche accountable for his reprehensible conduct."
In particular, the watchdog alleges Blanche violated several rules of professional conduct applicable to lawyers in New York state, including prohibitions against conduct involving "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation"; conduct "prejudicial to the administration of justice"; conduct that "adversely reflects on the lawyer's fitness as a lawyer"; and the threatened or actual presentation of criminal charges "solely to obtain an advantage in a civil matter."
The bar complaint further criticizes Blanche for the role he allegedly played in disciplining DOJ immigration attorney Erez Reuveni after Reuveni told the Maryland court that Abrego Garcia's deportation had been an "administrative error." This discipline led to Reuveni being sacked after he "refused directions from his superiors to file a brief arguing that Mr. Abrego was a terrorist," the bar complaint argues.
The watchdog also takes Blanche to task for at least some of the behavior of DOJ employee Aakash Singh, who reported directly to Blanche at the time, again based on the court's opinion.
"Within that environment, Mr. Singh, Mr. Blanche's direct report, exercised close, regular, and substantive oversight of the Abrego prosecution and ultimately delivered the indictment over the express objection of the Tennessee Criminal Division Chief," the complaint reads.
To that end, the watchdog alleges Blanche may have violated a rule prohibiting an attorney from inducing another attorney to violate the rules.
The complaint is addressed to the Attorney Grievance Committee of the First Judicial Department of New York and the Committee on Grievances of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
"There are few authorities remaining who stand between Mr. Blanche and the weaponization of the justice system to serve the president's political will," the complaint goes on. "The Committees, however, are uniquely positioned to put a stop to this by preventing Mr. Blanche from using his New York Bar license to repeat his conduct in the Abrego case. Failing to discipline Mr. Blanche under these egregious circumstances will embolden others who would use our system of justice for their own political ends."