Todd Blanche responds to politicization claims

The White House shouldn't be able to direct the attorney general to go around prosecuting whoever the president wants prosecuted. Right. Because technically, it's under the executive branch.

Technically, it's-- The norm is that it's independent. The idea is that the attorney general is the people's lawyer. It's not the president's consiglieri. You can't have a situation in which whoever's in charge of the government starts using that to go after their political enemies or reward their friends.

Our CBS News immigration correspondent Camilo Montoya-Galvez sat down with an exclusive interview with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and joins us now from Tempe, Arizona. So, Camilo, what did you say in response-- what did he say in response to critics who say he's engaging in vindictive prosecution? Well, Lindsey, as you know, the Trump administration has faced a long-standing concern by Democratic lawmakers that the Justice Department and now acting Attorney General Todd Blanche are engaged in political retribution on behalf of President Trump to settle scores with critics and rivals of the president. The most recent case that Democratic officials and critics of the president would cite is that criminal case against former FBI director James Comey. And we asked Blanche directly whether he's engaged in political retribution on behalf of the president again. Let's take a listen to what he told us.

Well, I would say like I always say. We file thousands, thousands of criminal cases in this country every year, thousands at the federal level, hundreds every day. And so to the extent that myself or President Trump or lawyers who work with me are being accused of some sort of political retribution, it is simply not true. It is absolutely not true. And how do I prove it's not true? Well, if you look at the recent indictment you asked me about a few minutes ago, you have local prosecutors, you have local agents. I don't even know their names. I don't know their names who are bringing these charges. That's one way. The next thing I'll say is it is extraordinarily hypocritical and extraordinarily rich for these critics, as you call them, to focus on what this administration is doing when almost to a person, they remain dead silent for four years while we saw what happened during the Biden administration with President Trump. I mean, let us look in the mirror. Don't worry. We have a single case that somehow I'm politically doing something, retribution. It's just simply false. We also asked, Lindsey, the attorney general whether the president is calling him directly and asking him to prosecute enemies of the president. He did not categorically or explicitly deny that, but said the president has better things to do than to tell the attorney general how to do his job. Lindsey. OK, we should note, though, he has done that on Truth Social, at least did that with Pam Bondi, who is no longer in that role. What did he-- That's right. --say about his efforts for the department to support the president's immigration crackdown? Well, Blanche told us that the Justice Department is playing a critical role in President Trump's mass deportation agenda and the crackdown on illegal immigration by the administration. He noted that there are thousands of FBI, ATF, DEA, and Marshals agents from the DOJ helping ICE and Border Patrol carry out immigration arrests and also the tensions across the US. He also mentioned that the Justice Department is ramping up prosecutions of people who are alleged to have assaulted federal immigration agents. And finally, Blanche, Lindsey, said that the administration is also expanding a massive denaturalization campaign targeting naturalized US citizens who the Justice Department claims have engaged in fraud. Lindsey. Camilo Montoya-Galvez, thank you.