An attorney general does not become an ordinary campaign volunteer by announcing that he has changed into his personal capacity. The public knows who he is. The title does not stay home watching television while the man goes out to help Republicans win.

The Guardian reports that Todd Blanche has appeared at Republican campaign events, while DOJ has revised ethics guidance to allow more partisan activity by presidential appointees confirmed by the Senate. The department says his appearances are personal, receive ethics clearance and involve reimbursed travel expenses. Fine. The mileage has been accounted for. Now explain the federal law-enforcement authority following him around like an enormous, armed LinkedIn endorsement.

This is the old trick of answering the smallest possible question and hoping everybody mistakes it for the large one. Who paid for the trip matters. Whether the nation’s top federal law-enforcement official should serve as campaign reassurance matters too. A reimbursed airplane ticket cannot purchase institutional credibility. If it could, DOJ’s declarations of independence would come with frequent-flyer status.

Technical permission is not the same as good judgment. We understand this everywhere else. Your dinner host may permit you to bring a trombone. It does not follow that the eulogy needs accompaniment. An ethics office can clear an appearance while the appearance still tells voters that the referee has strong feelings about which team should receive the trophy.

The election-season timing argument is equally revealing. In 2024, Blanche, then Trump’s attorney, invoked DOJ’s traditional pre-election restraint against a damaging filing in Trump’s case. Experts disputed that application because the filing answered a court deadline. Now the department he leads emphasizes that the practice is informal and does not require ongoing work to stop. Apparently the calendar’s constitutional significance depends on whose afternoon it is ruining.

No, investigations should not disappear because someone is a candidate. A search warrant is not a campaign verdict, and neither is it automatically proof of a political conspiracy. The objection is to officials combining coercive public authority with overt partisan performance, then demanding we admire how carefully they separated the receipts.

A genuinely independent department would be almost boring about this. It would guard the distinction because the power is dangerous, not because a watchdog might catch a procedural error. Instead we get the boutique version of restraint: available for clients, subject to seasonal adjustment, ask your attorney whether you qualify.

Blanche can reimburse every last travel expense. The public is still being asked to pay for the damage.

Perhaps his personal capacity could take a few weekends off and let the attorney general do the job.