President-elect Donald Trump is turning to his personal criminal defense team to fill out top roles at the US Justice Department in his second term.
Trump on Thursday announced that Todd Blanche is his pick for deputy attorney general and Emil Bove, another member of his criminal defense team, to serve as principal associate deputy attorney general. John Sauer, who won the presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court, was chosen for the role of solicitor general.
The choices are reflective of Trump’s dependence on his inner circle of allies – in this case his criminal attorneys – but the three also may be seen as more standard picks for the legal positions compared to his nod for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.
As deputy attorney general, Blanche would be tasked with managing the day-to-day functions of the department, while advising the attorney general on policy priorities and other issues.
Both Blanche and Bove played a central role in Trump’s defense teams in the Manhattan hush money case, which resulted in a conviction earlier this year, and the federal classified documents prosecution, which was dismissed by a judge this summer. Blanche was also involved in the federal case related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
As Trump’s lead attorney in the hush money case, Blanche conducted the multi-day cross-examination of Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen and clashed on several occasions with Judge Juan Merchan, who at one point questioned Blanche’s credibility when he tried to defend Trump’s violations of the judge’s gag order.
Blanche spent several years as a federal prosecutor before entering private practice about a decade ago. When he took Trump on as client last year, he stepped down from the white-shoe New York law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he was a partner.
Sauer, the solicitor general nominee, may have had the biggest legal victory of the year. He successfully argued Trump’s immunity case before the Supreme Court. The justices ultimately ruled that presidents are entitled to immunity from prosecution for official actions taken as president.
That ruling, in addition to helping Trump sidestep the federal charges against him, may end up being key in ending the New York business fraud criminal case as well, which is on appeal.
“John is a deeply accomplished, masterful appellate attorney, who clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia in the United States Supreme Court, served as Solicitor General of Missouri for six years, and has extensive experience practicing before the U.S. Supreme Court and other Appellate Courts,” Trump said in a statement.
The solicitor general oversees and argues the government’s cases before the Supreme Court.
This story has been updated with additional developments.