WASHINGTON — In his first speech to Justice Department staff since he was sworn in as U.S. attorney general earlier this week, Todd Blanche pledged to lead the department with integrity and to focus on upholding the rule of law fairly and impartially to keep the country safe and protect the rights of all U.S. citizens.

“It’s easy to focus on the negative or the news story that is critical of something that we’re doing or something that we’ve done ... but do not forget that we have accomplished a tremendous amount of good, positive work in the past year and a half,” Blanche said Thursday.

He cited the Justice Department’s help in seizing thousands of pounds of fentanyl, capturing most of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives and reducing violent crime by arresting “tens of thousands of violent offenders” who traffic drugs and humans.

“These are men and women who are now removed from our communities so that our communities can be safer,” he said in a 20-minute speech in which he repeatedly expressed gratitude for his role and the work of his staff.

He encouraged the people who work for the department to engage in healthy disagreement but to set aside their political differences so the DOJ can pursue its decided plan of action “as one team, one mission, one goal. That’s what this department has done for generations.”

During Trump’s second term, the department has been criticized for carrying out a campaign of vengeance on the president’s perceived enemies and abandoning its traditional role as a partisan-free investigative and prosecutorial branch of the government. The agency reportedly lost about 3,000 attorneys and staff between January 2025 and early 2026 because of buyouts, firings, resignations and retirements.

Most recently, Blanche himself had come under fire for the $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" he negotiated in May to compensate individuals who said they had been targeted by a politically weaponized government. Blanche has since formally rescinded the order to gain confirmation as attorney general and confirmed Wednesday that the fund is “dead.”

On Thursday, Blanche pledged to defend the Constitution vigorously in court and to “continue to defend the executive branch’s policies and regulations.”

“My goal at the end of the day is that when we’re finished, when I leave this department, whenever that is, we’re more respected, more faithful, more faithful to its highest ideals than when I found it," he said. "And that should be every single person’s goal every single day.”