Trump’s criminal defense attorneys offered DOJ roles
by Zach Schonfeld - 11/14/24 7:00 PM ET
President-elect Trump announced Thursday he will nominate three of his personal criminal defense attorneys to serve in senior Justice Department roles.
Todd Blanche will serve as deputy attorney general, and Emil Bove will serve as principal associate deputy attorney general, the department’s No. 3 official, Trump announced in a statement.
Both men serve as Trump’s trial attorneys in his New York hush money case, which culminated in the first criminal conviction of a former president this spring, and Trump’s two federal criminal prosecutions brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump also announced Thursday he will nominate D. John Sauer, an appellate attorney who argued Trump’s presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court earlier this year, as solicitor general.
That position is the fourth highest-ranking Justice Department official and decides which cases the government will appeal, including representing the administration before the nation’s highest court.
The three attorneys will presumably serve under former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whom Trump announced as his attorney general nominee one day prior, sending political shockwaves through Washington.
Unlike Gaetz, both Blanche and Bove previously worked as prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
Trump in his announcement highlighted that experience, making no mention of the duo’s work as his defense attorneys.
more
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4991773-trump-doj-hush-money-attorneys/
