The second-highest-ranking attorney at the Department of Justice, who previously served as Donald Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, stirred up considerable backlash on Tuesday. His comments on CNN suggested that the actions of a group of women at a Washington, D.C., restaurant, who vocally disrupted the president’s meal, could justify initiating Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) investigations.

Todd Blanche, who represented Trump in his hush-money and Mar-a-Lago espionage cases, appeared on CNN with Kaitlan Collins. He was questioned about the Code Pink activists who gathered at Joe’s Seafood restaurant on September 9th, chanting “Free D.C., free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time!” while the president, along with some cabinet members like Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, were about to dine.

The United States’ Deputy Attorney General to Attorney General Pam Bondi used this scenario to rationalize Trump’s push for RICO investigations.

Deputy AG Blanche expressed that RICO provisions apply to various organizations engaged in illegal or wrongful acts, questioning if it was merely coincidental that individuals arrived at a restaurant where the president’s dining was disrupted with offensive remarks.

Collins: They… pic.twitter.com/T5gom2HLm4

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 17, 2025

On Monday, the president mentioned during conversations with Bondi the possibility of “bringing RICO actions against some people you’ve heard about who have been funding disturbances,” arguing that activities many label as mere “protests” are indeed “crimes.” He suggested these are supported by left-wing groups like “Antifa” and wealthy liberal individuals such as George Soros.

Directly addressing the restaurant incident, Trump said the women who accosted him should be jailed for being “subversive” and “paid” agitators.

Trump recounted: They began shouting as I entered the restaurant, something related to Palestine. And I noted that my efforts for Middle East peace should merit me many accolades.

She was a paid agitator. I’ve asked Pam to look into that in terms of bringing Rico cases… pic.twitter.com/gXxdWpMKv4

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 15, 2025

“I mean, the woman is just a mouthpiece, or she was — she was a paid — she was a paid agitator, and you have a lot of them. And I’ve asked Pam to look into that in terms of RICO, bringing RICO cases against them — criminal RICO, because they should be put in jail,” Trump said.

Leaving aside that Trump himself was charged with violating Georgia’s RICO statute following the 2020 election he lost, the federal RICO statute is one that former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani famously used to prosecute the mafia decades ago. In more recent times, the federal government tried and failed to convict Sean “Diddy” Combs under RICO — but succeeded with R. Kelly.

The DOJ’s Justice Manual notes that RICO was “passed by Congress with the declared purpose of seeking to eradicate organized crime in the United States” by criminalizing “(1) conduct (2) of an enterprise (3) through a pattern (4) of racketeering activity.” In order to do that, the government must identify “racketeering predicates” and show these “amount to or pose a threat of continued criminal activity.”

Among the most common predicates or underlying crimes are violent offenses — like sex trafficking, murder, robbery, kidnapping and extortion — and financial crimes, mostly various forms of fraud.

When asked about Trump’s RICO statements Tuesday, Blanche suggested that the president was onto something.

“As you know, RICO has been used to go after like al Qaeda, MS-13, the Gambino family. How would something like that protest fall under a RICO charge?” Collins asked first.

Blanche answered that, actually, RICO is “available to all kinds of organizations committing crimes and committing wrongful acts, not just organized crime or ISIS or terrorist organizations. And so, it depends.”

Framing the appearance of protesters at the restaurant as not mere “happenstance,” Blanche suggested that “vile words and vile anger,” if “part of an organized effort,” could be a legitimate predicate for RICO investigations.

“So is it, again, sheer happenstance that individuals show up at a restaurant, where the President is trying to enjoy dinner, in Washington, D.C., and accost him with vile words and vile anger? And meanwhile, he’s simply trying to have dinner. Does it mean it’s just completely random that they showed up? Maybe. Maybe,” he said. “But to the extent that it’s part of an organized effort, to inflict harm and terror and damage to the United States, there’s potential — potential investigations there. And that’s — that’s what the President was saying, yesterday, in the Oval Office, and what he’s also has said in the days before that as well.”

Collins, following up, stated that the protesters “were just shouting basically in [Trump’s] vicinity,” which surely doesn’t rise to “inflicting harm, or terror, or damage[.]”

Not so fast, said Blanche.

“I mean, repeat what you just said. I mean, honestly. So, you’re asking whether there’s damage done by four individuals, screaming and yelling at the President of our United States while he’s trying to have dinner,” he continued. “That can’t be a serious question. That cannot be a serious question.”

Asserting that “there’s nothing wrong with peaceful protests, and [that] nobody has ever said so,” Blanche said the restaurant protest example is different.

“But what [Trump’s] talking about, and what the administration is talking about, is organized efforts by individuals, who are not present at the protests, but they’re funding these protests, and they’re not protests,” he said, suggesting left-wing activists are paid cogs in a larger racketeering enterprise machine. “They’re inflicting damage and harm, and actually assaulting officers. They’re damaging vehicles. And that’s the conduct that we’re trying to stop.”

The reaction to Blanche’s interview was swift and largely mocking, starting with former federal prosecutor Daniel Goldman, now a Democratic representative for New York. Goldman stated flatly that Blanche is “corrupting the DOJ” by making such “ridiculous” statements on cable news.

“I charged RICO cases,” said Goldman. “Yelling at the President is not a racketeering act and cannot be the basis for a criminal charge. @DAGToddBlanche knows better. He is corrupting the DOJ with ridiculous comments like this.”

Many other broadsides were levied in much the same vein. A sampling:

The world according to Todd Blanche:

Conspiring to overturn the results of a presidential election = not RICO

Yelling in the vicinity of the president while he dines at Joe’s Stone Crab = RICO! https://t.co/KZfVAK6QfR

— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) September 17, 2025

I had no idea that accosting someone with words was a RICO predicate 🙄 https://t.co/B9PuiFZJGV

— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway3d) September 17, 2025

The Deputy AG of the United States is conducting a RICO investigation into the woman yelling at Trump in the restaurant. We’ve come a long way from the statute being used to take down the Gambino crime family. https://t.co/BGplY4f9fX

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 17, 2025

Yes, protests are sometimes organized. That obviously doesn’t make them unlawful. This is a nonsense argument from the Deputy AG.

If I’m understanding him correctly: He’s suggesting the Department of Justice may pursue RICO charges against protesters if their protests are 1)… https://t.co/hvALup29iy

— Nico Perrino (@NicoPerrino) September 17, 2025

Saying mean things to Donald Trump is not a RICO predicate act. Even YELLING at Donald Trump is not a RICO predicate act.

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— Stand With Chicago Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) September 16, 2025 at 9:58 PM

/2 Also: if you suggest that shouting at the President in a restaurant is RICO, you are (1) completely without shame or self-respect, and (2) believe, probably accurately, that your chosen audience is made up of total morons.

— Stand With Chicago Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) September 16, 2025 at 10:11 PM

Lol. Protesting the President is RICO now?

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— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick.bsky.social) September 16, 2025 at 11:08 PM