2026-04-07 16:12:00 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
代理司法部长托德·布兰奇周二表示，在上周帕姆·邦迪被免去该职务后，如果特朗普总统提出要求，他愿意长期担任司法部长一职。
在一场宣布成立新的全国欺诈执法部门的新闻发布会上，布兰奇以代理司法部长的身份亮相——尽管邦迪的肖像仍悬挂在大楼各处墙上——并表示他仍计划于周三陪同邦迪参加一项事先安排好的活动。
“我并未主动谋求这份工作，”他对媒体表示，“我很乐意为特朗普总统效力，这是我一生中最大的荣幸。如果特朗普总统选择让我继续担任代理司法部长，那是我的荣幸。如果他选择提名我担任正职，那同样是我的荣幸。如果他选择提名其他人，而我回到副部长的岗位上，那也是我的荣幸。如果他提名其他人并让我去做其他工作，我会说‘非常感谢，我爱您，总统先生’。”
据哥伦比亚广播公司此前报道，邦迪上周被解职，原因是特朗普先生对司法部未能足够迅速地起诉他的政治对手感到不满。
布兰奇周二表示，他并不清楚邦迪被解职的原因，并对她的领导能力表示赞扬。
“帕姆·邦迪是特朗普总统值得信赖的朋友，”他说，“除了总统本人之外，没人知道为什么司法部长不再担任该职务，而我成为了代理司法部长。”
特朗普的顾问们也一直在积极讨论是否要进一步调整高级领导层，可能会降级副司法部长斯坦利·伍德沃德，并提拔民权部门负责人哈米特·迪隆。但这一变动尚未发生，伍德沃德周二在会议室后排观看了这场新闻发布会。目前尚不清楚是否会有额外的人事变动。
布兰奇回避了有关是否会面临特朗普先生要求其起诉政治对手的额外压力的问题，称每一起案件都会“在法律的最大框架内，动用我们所有的资源”进行调查，其中也包括涉及特朗普先生政治对手的案件。
“目前我国有数千起正在进行的调查和起诉案件，其中确实有一些涉及总统过去曾与其存在分歧的个人、女性和实体，”布兰奇说道。
“我并不认为这是压力，”他补充道，“我不认为这会让我夜不能寐。”
布兰奇还表示，司法部新成立的欺诈部门将愿意接受来自白宫的刑事转介，但新任助理司法部长科林·麦克唐纳不会正式向白宫汇报工作。副总统JD·万斯今年1月宣布设立该职位时曾表示，该部门将由白宫运作，他和特朗普先生将对其进行监督。但他后来收回了这些言论，提交给国会的组织结构文件显示，麦克唐纳将向司法部高级领导层汇报工作，与其他所有助理司法部长一样。
这一安排与水门事件后确立的以往惯例形成鲜明对比，当时的惯例旨在使刑事调查免受白宫的政治干预。
“总统与其优先事项以及司法部应该关注和不应该关注的领域之间始终存在沟通，”他说，“如果我们的美国总统说‘我听说明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯市存在持续的欺诈行为’，和历任总统一样，我希望司法部长会毫不犹豫地表示‘好的，我们会对此展开调查’，”布兰奇说道。
布兰奇表示，新的欺诈部门将把司法部内多个主要负责医疗保健欺诈、税务欺诈、福利欺诈和企业欺诈等刑事欺诈案件的办公室整合在一起，统一归口管理。
他还宣布成立一个新的由检察官领导的全国欺诈检测中心，该中心将由多个联邦机构的数据分析师组成，旨在“揪出那些骗取联邦政府项目资金的最恶劣行为者”。
珍妮弗·雅各布斯为本报道撰稿。
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says he’s open to serving in job permanently
2026-04-07 16:12:00 / CBS News
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday that he’d be willing to serve as the attorney general permanently if asked by President Trump, after Pam Bondi was ousted from the post last week.
Speaking at a press conference to announce the creation of a new National Fraud Enforcement Division, Blanche introduced himself as the acting attorney general, even though Bondi’s portrait is still hanging on the walls throughout the building, and said he still planned to travel with her Wednesday to a previously scheduled event.
“I did not ask for this job,” he told the press. “I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime, and if President Trump chooses to keep me as acting, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate me, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and I go back to being the Deputy Attorney General, that’s an honor. If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘thank you very much, I love you, sir.’”
Bondi’s removal last week came amid frustrations by Mr. Trump that the Justice Department has not worked swiftly enough to prosecute his political enemies, CBS previously reported.
Blanche claimed on Tuesday not to know the reasons for Bondi’s removal, and praised her for her leadership.
“Pam Bondi is a trusted friend of President Trump’s,” he said. “Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I’m the acting attorney general, except for the president.”
Trump advisers have also been actively discussing whether to further shake up senior leadership by possibly demoting Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and elevating Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Civil Rights Division. But this hasn’t happened yet, and Woodward watched the press conference from the back of the room on Tuesday. It remains unclear whether additional personnel moves could come.
Blanche fended off questions about whether he will be facing additional pressure by Mr. Trump to secure indictments against political opponents, saying every case would be investigated “to the fullest extent of the law, using all of the resources we can,” including those involving Mr. Trump’s enemies.
“We have thousands of ongoing investigations and prosecutions going on in this country right now, and it is true that some of them involve men women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with,” Blanche said.
“I do not view this as pressure,” he added. “I do not view this as something that is going to keep me up at night.”
Acting Atty. General Todd Blanche conducts a news conference at the Justice Dept., April 7, 2026. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Blanche also said that the Justice Department’s new fraud division would be willing to accept criminal referrals from the White House, though the new assistant attorney general, Colin McDonald, will not be formally reporting to the White House. When Vice President JD Vance announced the creation of the position in January, he said that it would be run out of the White House and he and Mr. Trump would oversee it. He later walked those comments back, and documents outlining the structure sent to Capitol Hill showed that McDonald will be reporting to senior Justice Department leadership, as do all of the other assistant attorneys general.
This arrangement is a stark departure from prior norms instituted after the Watergate scandal, which sought to insulate criminal investigations from political influence from the White House.
“There is always communication between a president and his priorities and what the Department of Justice should be focused on and not focused on,” he said. “If the president of our United States says, ‘I have heard that there is ongoing fraud in Minneapolis, Minnesota,’ like any president before him, I hope that the attorney general would absolutely say, ‘Yes, we’ll investigate that,’” Blanche said.
Blanche said the new fraud division will combine a variety of offices at the department that handle mostly criminal fraud involving health care, taxes fraud, benefits and corporate fraud and bring them together under one roof.
He also announced the establishment of a new prosecutor-led national fraud detection center composed of data analysts from multiple federal agencies that will aim to “ferret out the most harmful actors defrauding federal government programs.”
Jennifer Jacobs contributed to this report.
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