Trump picks legal defense team for top Justice Department roles

Ryan Tarinelli and Michael Macagnone, CQ-Roll Call on Nov 14, 2024

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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday he selected three attorneys who defended him in criminal cases for high-ranking posts within the Justice Department.

In a statement, Trump tapped Todd Blanche for deputy attorney general, the department’s No. 2 official, and named Emil Bove for principal associate deputy attorney general.

In another statement, Trump announced his pick of attorney D. John Sauer for solicitor general, a position that oversees the federal government’s advocacy before the Supreme Court.

The deputy attorney general and solicitor general roles require Senate confirmation, while the principal associate deputy attorney general does not. Trump posted that Bove will serve as acting deputy attorney general as Blanche goes through the confirmation process.

The announcements put Senate Republicans in the position of deciding whether to confirm Trump’s criminal defense team to the pinnacle of federal law enforcement.

Blanche and Bove were counsel for Trump in the two federal criminal cases brought by special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith, one in Washington that accused Trump of crimes connected to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and another in Florida that accused him of illegally keeping classified documents after his first term.

Those two cases have been paused and will likely be dismissed by the start of Trump’s new term, due to DOJ policy that sitting presidents cannot be charged.

Blanche and Bove also served on Trump’s defense team in the New York state case where he was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records connected to his 2016 run for office.

Trump’s team in the case has sought to set aside the conviction in light of the Supreme Court decision finding him immune from most criminal charges and to delay a sentencing hearing currently set for later this month.

Sauer argued Trump’s successful appeal to the Supreme Court earlier this year, which ruled that presidents are immune from most criminal charges for official acts. During those arguments, Sauer said that the threat of a criminal prosecution could paralyze a president.

Sauer said that other structural checks on a president, including impeachment and the threat of prosecution for his subordinates, would be sufficient to prevent the presidency from becoming a center of criminal activity.

“Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken System of Justice for far too long,” Trump said in the statement. The president-elect called Bove a “tough and strong attorney” and said he will be a “crucial part of the Justice Department, rooting out corruption and crime.”

Blanche and Bove are both former federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, according to their biographies. Sauer was appointed to serve as Missouri solicitor general in 2017 by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who was then the state’s attorney general. Sauer served in that role until 2023.

Trump’s announcement on Blanche, Bove and Sauer follows his announcement Wednesday that he would nominate former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to be attorney general. Gaetz was also highly critical of the criminal cases against Trump from his position as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Also on Thursday, Trump announced he will nominate Jay Clayton, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to be U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, a key role because it includes Manhattan.

Trump repeatedly invoked the perceived “weaponization” of the Justice Department against him during his campaign and expressed support for turning federal law enforcement against his rivals.

Trump repeatedly butted heads with Justice Department and criminal justice officials in his first term. He asked his first attorney general, former Sen. Jeff Sessions, to resign in 2018 after the two repeatedly butted heads over Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the investigation into the Russian government’s interference in Trump’s favor in the 2016 election.

Trump’s second attorney general, William Barr, told the House select panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that he resigned in December 2020 after Trump continued to press claims of election fraud that Barr said were false.