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Todd Blanche, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, awakened one morning in late September to the news that his cheerful, at times insubordinate subordinate Ed Martin had blindsided him again.
Mr. Martin, given nearly free rein inside the department by President Trump to investigate perceived administration enemies, had sent a threatening letter to an ex-F.B.I. agent who had testified, years before, against the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for spouting lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre.
A ticked-off Mr. Blanche asked Mr. Martin: Why pick a pointless fight that would embarrass the administration on behalf of a fringe activist? He demanded that Mr. Martin rescind the letter, according to three people briefed on a phone call between the two men.
Mr. Martin, who had used his brief tenure as the top federal prosecutor in Washington to purge government lawyers who charged Jan. 6 rioters, complied.
Mr. Blanche has, in a few instances, defended the Justice Department against the most extreme efforts of Mr. Trump and his allies to pursue an intensifying campaign of retribution. But he has hardly been a bulwark of resistance. In seven months as deputy attorney general, Mr. Blanche, the former head of Mr. Trump’s criminal defense team, has more often than not enabled the president’s effort to discard processes and restraints that once preserved the department’s independence.
And even when Mr. Blanche has pushed back, he has often been overruled by the White House or undermined by Trump stalwarts picked to execute the president’s orders.
