Attorney General Todd Blanche Rejects New AI Laws: 'We Don't Need It'

Todd Blanche just threw a wet blanket on Washington’s favorite new panic. Reports of rogue AI programs hitting government websites sent the usual crowd scrambling for fresh legislation. The attorney general’s answer? We don’t need it. He’s right, and it’s worth saying plainly.

What happened is a crime. Unauthorized access to government systems, whoever or whatever is behind it, is already illegal. You don’t need a new law to know that breaking into a federal website is wrong. You need prosecutors willing to go after the people who did it. Blanche seems to understand that. The gap isn’t in the statutes. It’s in the will to enforce them.

Everyone saw the same headline. The left saw a reason to draft another thousand-page AI bill that would take years to write and decades to untangle. Blanche saw a law enforcement problem. That distinction matters. The federal government already has computer fraud laws, wire fraud statutes, and a whole toolbox for cybercrime. Adding more layers won’t stop a single rogue chatbot. It will just give agencies new ways to regulate innovation into submission.

Restraint is a feature, not a bug. We’re glad the Justice Department is being run by someone who doesn’t flinch at the first scary tech story. Let the hackers be hunted, let the existing rules be used, and let the AI hype machine cool off. That’s the conservative instinct, and it’s the right one here.