President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has selected three lawyers who have defended him in criminal cases for high-ranking positions within the Justice Department.
In a statementTrump nominated Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general, the department’s second-ranking official, and named Emil Bove as principal deputy attorney general.
In another statementTrump announced his choice of attorney D. John Sauer for solicitor general, a position that oversees the federal government’s advocacy before the Supreme Court.
The roles of deputy attorney general and solicitor general require Senate confirmation, while the principal deputy attorney general does not. Trump announced that Bove would serve as acting deputy attorney general while Blanche went through the confirmation process.
The announcements put Senate Republicans in the position of deciding whether or not to confirm Trump’s criminal defense team at the top of federal law enforcement.
Blanche and Bove were Trump’s lawyers in the two federal criminal cases, brought by special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith, one in Washington that accused Trump of crimes related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and another in Florida who accused him. of illegal possession of classified documents after his first term.
These two cases were on pause and will likely be removed from office by the start of Trump’s new term, due to the DOJ’s policy that sitting presidents cannot be indicted.
Blanche and Bove were also part of Trump’s defense team in the New York state case where he was sentenced of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to his candidacy in the 2016 elections.
Trump’s team in the case sought to overturn the conviction in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling declaring him immune from most criminal charges and to delay a sentencing hearing currently scheduled for later this month .
Sauer argued Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court earlier this year, which ruled that presidents are immune from most criminal charges for official acts, was successful. During these debates, Sauer said the threat of criminal prosecution could paralyze a president.
Sauer said other structural controls on a president, including impeachment and the threat of prosecution of subordinates, would be sufficient to prevent the presidency from becoming a center of criminal activity.
“Todd is an excellent lawyer who will be a crucial leader within the Justice Department, repairing what has been a broken justice system for far too long,” Trump said in the statement. The president-elect called Bove a “tough, strong lawyer” and said he would play a “crucial role in the Justice Department, eliminating 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 Missouri solicitor general in 2017 by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who was then the state’s attorney general. Sauer held this position until 2023.
Trump’s announcement on Blanche, Bove and Sauer follows his announcement Wednesday that he designer former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., will serve as attorney general. Gaetz has also been highly critical of the criminal prosecution of Trump due to his position as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Also Thursday, Trump announced he would nominate Jay Clayton, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, a key role because it includes Manhattan.
Trump repeatedly invoked the “militarization” of the Justice Department against him during his campaign and expressed support for the idea of turning federal law enforcement against his rivals.
Trump clashed repeatedly with Justice Department and criminal justice officials during his first term. He asked his first attorney general, former Sen. Jeff Sessions, to resign in 2018 after the two men clashed repeatedly over Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian government interference in favor of Trump in the 2016 election.
Trump’s second attorney general, William Barr, told the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol that he resigned in December 2020 after Trump continued to assert fraud allegations election that Barr had called false.