Lawyer Who Funded Infamous Anti-Trump Dossier Admits He Fears Pam Bondi Replacement

Democrat attorney Marc Elias voiced his fear of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday, calling him a “dangerous” threat to democracy.

Blanche erupted at reporters during a Tuesday press conference, rebuking what he described as the media’s double standard on political prosecutions after years of “sitting there” as Democrats targeted President Donald Trump, “his family, his administration, the agents that protected him,” and more. Trump named Blanche acting Attorney General on Thursday, saying Attorney General Pam Bondi would be “transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector.”

Elias, who has extensively represented Democratic Party interests in election-related legal battles and elsewhere, warned host Symone Sanders-Townsend on MS NOW’s “The Weeknight” that Blanche is a threat because he is able to “sound entirely reasonable.”

“These prosecutors are career individuals. They were assigned to this case, a case that was opened because of questionable conduct by the president of the United States that resulted in a basis for an investigation,” Sanders-Townsend said, with Elias responding, “Look, Todd Blanche is dangerous because he’s an unusually good liar. I mean, he is able to lie and make it sound entirely reasonable.”

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“I mean, as you point out, the prosecutors who he is criticizing, these are — these were line prosecutors who were assigned by their boss to do tasks that they were given,” Elias continued. “And in many instances, they were not even, like, in court lawyers. They were just lawyers who were processing evidence or reviewing documents.”

On multiple occasions in 2025, the administration fired Justice Department personnel who worked on the investigations of Trump led by special counsel Jack Smith during the Biden administration. Smith secured indictments over Trump’s handling of classified materials and efforts to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election, but the cases were dismissed after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

Elias, who was involved in creating the now-debunked Steele dossier during his time working at the Perkins Coie law firm, fretted about the fate of “democracy” with Blanche in charge at the Justice Department, as Trump has not nominated a replacement for Bondi.

“It’s a very, very, very dangerous day in democracy here,” Elias, who in the aftermath of the 2020 election sought to overturn two narrow election victories by Republicans in races for seats in the House of Representatives, claimed. “It is not just that we have a madman conducting our foreign policy. We have a dictator surrounded by sycophants who are using the power of the state, the power of the federal government to target his political opponents and his political adversaries. And as we head towards elections, we should just expect a lot more of this.”

The Steele dossier was a key source used to justify the FBI’s investigation into allegations that the Trump campaign engaged in election interference with Russia in 2016 that included wiretaps of Carter Page, a Trump associate, and others tied to the 2016 Trump campaign.

Fallout from the probe led to former FBI Director Robert Mueller being named special counsel to further investigate the allegations. Mueller eventually found no evidence Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia.

Special counsel John Durham released a report on May 15, 2023, on the origins of the FBI investigation of allegations that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia that found that the FBI “did not and could not corroborate” the claims from the now-discredited dossier.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released documents and a memo in July, detailing what she called a “years-long coup” against Trump after he defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race.