# Michael Luttig — "badge of shame" > [!quote] "Todd Blanche now becomes the symbol of Donald Trump's corruption of the rule of law in America and the actual ruin of the Department of Justice of the United States. This is another shameful act of acquiescence, if not obeisance, by the Senate Republicans; they will bear this badge of shame the rest of their lives." > — [[Michael Luttig]], MS NOW, following the **50–49** Senate vote confirming [[Todd Blanche]] as Attorney General, August 2026 In the same remarks he added: **"Never before in American history has an attorney general been confirmed who was as corrupt as Todd Blanche."** ## Context Luttig is a retired federal appellate judge appointed by George H. W. Bush, long regarded as one of the most respected conservative jurists of his generation and once a leading Republican Supreme Court prospect. He advised Mike Pence's counsel in January 2021 that the vice president had no authority to reject electoral votes. His post-2021 role has been that of a conservative institutionalist testifying against his own party's direction — which is precisely what makes the quote useful. This is not an opposition-party attack. The vote he is describing is documented at [[Todd Blanche Confirmation]]: 50–49, with [[Susan Collins]] and [[Lisa Murkowski]] the two Republicans opposed. ## Why This Matters **The target of the accusation is the Senate, not the nominee.** Luttig's sharpest language falls on the senators who confirmed rather than on Blanche himself — "acquiescence, if not obeisance." That framing tracks the vault's recurring finding about the Nixon precedent: the mechanism that has historically constrained a president is his own party's willingness to break with him, and Luttig is arguing that the mechanism did not engage. Two Republicans did break. Forty-eight did not, and that is the number he is addressing. ## Verification Verbatim across three independent reproductions of the MS NOW segment — Mediaite, Raw Story, and a transcript service. The HCR 08-15 proposal flagged this quote as needing confirmation against the segment rather than her rendering; **it is confirmed**, and the wording matches. ## See Also - [[Michael Luttig]] · [[Todd Blanche]] · [[Todd Blanche Confirmation]] - [[Department of Justice]] · [[Rule of Law]] - [[Richard Nixon - abhorrent to every instinct in my body]] — the precedent Luttig's argument turns on