DOJ Inspector General ‘Declined Further Action’ on Todd Blanche Cryptocurrency Matter

The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General “declined further action” on an undisclosed matter involving Attorney General Todd Blanche’s cryptocurrency trades, according to a new federal financial disclosure document reviewed by The Washington Sun.

The revelation of the inspector general’s involvement comes months after ProPublica reported that Blanche — President Donald Trump’s one-time personal lawyer and previous deputy attorney general — torpedoed Biden-era federal investigations into cryptocurrency companies while himself owning six-figures worth of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital tokens.

Blanche’s actions prompted a complaint from the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, which suggested Blanche “blatantly” stood to profit from ending the investigations and called for an inspector general inquiry.

“If Blanche participated in a particular matter affecting the digital asset industry while owning digital assets, he may have violated his ethics agreement and the criminal conflict of interest law,” the complaint read.

A DOJ spokesperson cast the complaint as “baseless character assassination” in a January statement to ProPublica.

It’s unclear the extent to which the DOJ’s inspector general investigated Blanche or otherwise reviewed the matter this year.