{"id":2584153,"date":"2026-03-26T15:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blanche-blasts-mueller-as-russia-hoax-leader-at-cpac\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T15:19:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:19:59","slug":"blanche-blasts-mueller-as-russia-hoax-leader-at-cpac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blanche-blasts-mueller-as-russia-hoax-leader-at-cpac\/","title":{"rendered":"Blanche blasts Mueller as \u2018Russia hoax\u2019 leader at CPAC"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblanche-blasts-mueller-as-russia-hoax-leader-at-cpac%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2584153&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>At CPAC in Dallas, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche framed former special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation as a \u201cRussia, Russia, Russia hoax\u201d and described the probe as a weaponization of the Justice Department.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Blanche said Mueller led the investigation that nearly brought down President Trump, calling it a \u201ccomplete and total\u201d failure that caused lasting damage.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; he criticized Mueller\u2019s death,noting Trump\u2019s post on Truth Social in which Trump said he was \u201cglad\u201d Mueller is dead and \u201ccan no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/robert-mueller-has-died-at-81-trump-says-hes-glad\/\" title=\"... has died at 81, ... says he&#039;s &#039;glad&#039;\">longer hurt innocent people<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Blanche asserted the DOJ and FBI had been weaponized under prior administrations and argued that President Trump now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/three-dead-after-taliban-open-fire-on-protesters-in-jalalabad\/\" title=\"Three Dead After Taliban Open Fire On Protesters In JalalaBad\">asserts control<\/a> over the executive branch to restore <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/merrick-garland-pledges-to-investigate-prosecute-capitol-rioters\/\" title=\"Merrick Garland Pledges To Investigate, Prosecute Capitol Rioters\">equal justice<\/a> under the law.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; He claimed more than 200 Justice Department officials tied to past prosecutions had left or been removed, and that the administration had \u201ccleaned house\u201d at the FBI as part of a broader reset.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; blanche highlighted early actions such as pardons for Jan. 6 defendants and policy changes affecting religious organizations as examples of this new approach.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The CPAC audience applauded, reflecting continued criticism of the Mueller investigation within Trump-aligned political circles.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Blanche targets Mueller at CPAC, calls Russia investigation a &lsquo;hoax&rsquo; that &lsquo;almost brought down&rsquo; Trump<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2016066\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>GRAPEVINE, Texas &mdash; <\/strong>&nbsp;Deputy Attorney General <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4455921\/doj-fires-judge-appointed-acting-attorney-new-york\/\">Todd Blanche<\/a> on Thursday accused former special counsel <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/robert-mueller\/\">Robert Mueller<\/a> of leading the &ldquo;Russia, Russia, Russia hoax&rdquo; during a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/cpac\/\">Conservative Political Action Conference<\/a> fireside chat in Dallas, days after <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4499650\/robert-mueller-died-trump-says-glad\/\">Mueller&rsquo;s death<\/a>, calling the investigation a &ldquo;weaponization&rdquo; of the Justice Department.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking alongside CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp, Blanche said the investigation &ldquo;almost brought down President Trump,&rdquo; describing it as a &ldquo;complete and total&rdquo; failure that inflicted lasting damage on the country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4504595\/nicolas-maduro-cilia-flores-first-court-appearance\/\">Ousted Venezuelan dictator and his wife head back to court for first time since arrest<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4504524\/trump-doj-ramps-up-denaturalization-for-migrants-who-hid-crimes\/\">Trump DOJ ramps up denaturalization for migrants who hid crimes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4504109\/bill-pulte-criminal-referral-letitia-james\/\">Bill Pulte files new criminal referral against Trump foe Letitia James<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>&ldquo;Unfortunately, Mr. Mueller was the leader of that,&rdquo; Blanche said, calling the inquiry &ldquo;the worst sort of weaponization&rdquo; of not only the Justice Department but also Congress, prosecutors, and the FBI.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4499650\/robert-mueller-died-trump-says-glad\/\">reacted to Mueller&rsquo;s death<\/a> in a Truth Social post over the weekend, writing that he was &ldquo;glad.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Robert Mueller just died. Good, I&rsquo;m glad he&rsquo;s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!&rdquo; Trump wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Mueller, a former <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/fbi\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"516\">FBI director<\/a> and Marine Corps veteran, led the bureau for 12 years, beginning just before the 9\/11 terrorist attacks and serving until September 2013. In 2017, he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dojs-top-national-security-lawyer-slammed-investigation-into-government-wrongdoing-in-surveillance-of-trump-aide\/\" title=\"DOJ\u2019s Top National Security Lawyer Slammed ... Into Government Wrongdoing in Surveillance of ... Aide\">appointed special counsel<\/a> to investigate alleged ties between Trump&rsquo;s 2016 presidential campaign and <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/russia\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"80\">Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>His report ultimately did not establish a criminal conspiracy but detailed extensive contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials, while also outlining potential obstruction of justice by Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Schlapp, moderating the fireside chat, referenced Mueller&rsquo;s death while criticizing his role in sustaining what he described as the &ldquo;illusion&rdquo; of Russian collusion.<\/p>\n<p>Blanche broadened his remarks into a wider indictment of federal law enforcement under prior administrations, arguing the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/justice-department\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"167\">Justice Department<\/a> and FBI had been &ldquo;weaponized&rdquo; against Trump and his allies.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;That was a stain on this country that will take a long time [to repair],&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to sweeping personnel changes under Trump, claiming that more than 200 Justice Department officials tied to past prosecutions had left or been removed and that leadership had &ldquo;cleaned house&rdquo; at the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions,&rdquo; Blanche said, adding that similar changes had taken place within the FBI.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Blanche also framed the administration&rsquo;s approach as a reset of executive authority over federal law enforcement, arguing that the president has clear constitutional control over the Justice Department.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;President Trump, for the first time in modern history, has said, &lsquo;I am the president. And if you work at the executive branch, you work for me,&rsquo;&rdquo; Blanche said. &ldquo;And guess what? We can all read the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/constitution\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"424\">Constitution<\/a>. He&rsquo;s right.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He added that prior administrations, including Republicans, had tolerated &ldquo;partisan actors&rdquo; within the Justice Department, a practice he said the current administration is rejecting.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/washington-secrets\/4504479\/cpac-persians-trump-message-maga-fight\/\"><strong>SECRETS AT CPAC: &lsquo;PERSIANS FOR TRUMP&rsquo; HAVE A MESSAGE FOR MAGA &mdash; FIGHT, FIGHT FIGHT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Blanche argued that the administration is now working &ldquo;every single day, seven days a week&rdquo; to restore what he described as equal justice under the law, pointing to early actions including pardons for Jan. 6 defendants and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >policy shifts affecting religious organizations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The comments drew applause from the CPAC audience, where criticism of the Mueller investigation has remained a defining feature of Trump-aligned politics, even as the issue has faded from the forefront of national debate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blanche accuses Mueller of Russia hoax at CPAC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2657,"featured_media":2584154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_9027-2-e1774546673960.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[25914,4539,19858,22228,27142],"class_list":["post-2584153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-blanche","tag-conservatives","tag-cpac","tag-mueller","tag-russia-hoax"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_9027-2-e1774546673960.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2584153"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2584157,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584153\/revisions\/2584157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2584154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2584153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2584153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2584153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}