Trump’s former lawyers land high-profile jobs in the admininistraion or on the federal bench

The swiftest path to a top Justice Department job or federal judicial appointment these days isn’t Harvard or Yale law school. It’s being Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.

Since the start of Trump’s second term in office, he has handed out posts in the Justice Department or judicial nominations to at least 10 of his former personal attorneys, according to a POLITICO analysis.

The most recent position, in early April, went to Matthew Schwartz, a partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell who served on the criminal defense team that appealed Trump’s conviction in the Manhattan hush money case. Trump nominated Schwartz to be a judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, a lifetime appointment.

The most prominent example, of course, is Todd Blanche, who catapulted quickly from whispering in Trump’s ear at the defense table during that Manhattan trial to overseeing DOJ operations as deputy attorney general. Now he’s prosecuting Trump’s perceived political enemies as acting attorney general. Blanche also represented Trump in his two federal prosecutions.

Solicitor General John Sauer, who represents the federal government in all matters before the Supreme Court, has also appeared before the justices in defense of Trump in a personal capacity. Before joining the administration, Sauer represented Trump in his presidential immunity dispute, winning a ruling that granted Trump and other presidents broad immunity from prosecution.

The issue, critics say, is that some people who have made the journey from private-practice lawyer to Justice Department employee don’t appear to recognize that their client is no longer Trump, but rather the American people — or, in the case of the judiciary, that they are now obligated to set aside their Trump loyalty and remain impartial.

“It’s problematic because the officers of the DOJ are expected to administer the law for the benefit of the United States, not for the benefit of the president,” said Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at New York University law school. “The president doesn’t own DOJ, it’s not his law firm.”

Emil Bove, who worked closely alongside Blanche to represent Trump in his Manhattan criminal case and two federal prosecutions, was one of the earliest top DOJ officials in place when Trump returned to power. After Bove’s brief and rocky tenure that led to a wave of resignations at the department, Trump nominated him to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, where he is now a judge. Bove drew attention late last year when, after joining the bench, he attended a Trump rally, prompting criticism and a complaint of judicial misconduct.

Asked to comment on Trump’s propensity to pluck judges and DOJ officials from his personal legal team, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said “all of President Trump’s nominees are eminently qualified to serve in the positions they have been nominated for.”

There is some precedent for a president nominating an attorney general with close personal ties. President John F. Kennedy installed his younger brother, Robert Kennedy, despite widespread criticism that the appointment constituted nepotism. And President Richard Nixon chose as his attorney general John Mitchell, his former law partner and a key adviser who managed his presidential campaign. Mitchell was eventually convicted and served a prison sentence as a result of his role in the Watergate scandal.

But the Trump pipeline appears much more robust than that of any other president — perhaps in part because few other presidents, if any, have had a need to employ so many personal lawyers.

In addition to the four federal and state criminal cases he faced between his terms in the White House, Trump also went to trial in three civil cases. Two were lawsuits brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, in which Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The other was a civil fraud lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general, in which a trial judge found Trump and his family business had committed fraud.

Justin Smith represented Trump in his appeal, still pending, to have the Supreme Court overturn jury verdicts from his Carroll trials. Earlier this year, Trump nominated Smith to be an appellate judge on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Smith’s confirmation hearing took place in mid-April.

“I suppose, from the president’s point of view, he tried to hire for himself, personally, lawyers who he thought were really good lawyers, and so he might regard them as well-qualified,” said Bruce Green, a professor at Fordham Law School who specializes in legal ethics and professional responsibility. “But that doesn’t mean they are well-qualified for the particular positions they’re receiving.”

“I don’t think there’s anything illegal about it,” he added, “I just think it’s not good practice if the people aren’t well-qualified.”

Some appointments have flown under the radar.

Will Scharf, who worked for Trump on several of his criminal and civil matters, is the White House staff secretary. Michael Talent, who worked on Trump’s immunity bid, is now working under Sauer at the solicitor general’s office. Kendra Wharton, who worked with Blanche on the Manhattan case as well as the two federal criminal cases against Trump, joined DOJ as associate deputy attorney general. She left the department in mid-2025.

And some have moved on, not necessarily by choice.

Alina Habba, a prominent former Trump lawyer who had never worked as a prosecutor, served as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney until December, when an appeals court upheld her disqualification from the job. Habba represented Trump in the Carroll trials, the civil fraud trial and a lawsuit Trump filed against Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey, over which Habba and Trump were fined nearly $1 million for “sanctionable conduct.”

After Habba stepped down as U.S. attorney, she received yet another Trump administration position as senior adviser to the attorney general for U.S. attorneys. She parted ways with the Justice Department in April, according to a DOJ spokesperson.

Former Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan, who also had no prosecutorial experience, became the president’s hand-picked U.S. attorney in the eastern district of Virginia after her predecessor failed to bring indictments against Trump’s political enemies. Halligan had represented Trump in the criminal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith over Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago at the end of his first term.

Halligan left the post in Virginia in January, after she was disqualified and a federal judge called her continued use of the U.S. attorney title a “charade.” Halligan’s disqualification also resulted in the dismissal of indictments she brought against Trump foes Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Gillers posited two ways of analyzing the phenomenon of Trump mining his pool of personal attorneys to stock his administration. One, he said, is that Trump has had so much experience with lawyers during the course of his lifetime as a businessman, politician and defendant that he has been able to hire the best lawyers, evaluate their strengths and then recognize those people are the best fit for high-ranking positions in his administration. “If his values are good, the experiences benefit the country as well.” Gillers said.

The other possibility, though, is that Trump “has satisfied himself that the lawyer he is promoting has demonstrated the kind of loyalty he expects from government lawyers and even from private lawyers — that they will do what he wants,” Gillers said.

In that case, he said, Trump is nominating his personal attorneys “to something desirable based on his conclusion that they have no loyalty to the rule of law; they have loyalty to him.”