Who Are Trump's Potential Candidates for Attorney General?
Several potential candidates have law firm backgrounds, including some who practiced in Big Law earlier in their careers.
November 12, 2024 at 06:13 PM
5 minute read
What You Need to Know
- Trump has indicated that he would like to overhaul the Justice Department, as well as use the department to go after his political enemies.
- Candidates rumored to be on Trump's attorney general short list have a mix of public- and private-sector experience.
- Sen. Mike Lee previously worked in Big Law and was also a federal prosecutor.
President-elect Donald Trump is quickly assembling his picks to fill top posts in his second administration, tapping trusted allies and advisers.
Now all eyes in the legal industry are set on who will be the next U.S. attorney general and potential priorities for the Justice Department.
Several names have already been floated in various news reports as potential candidates for the attorney general position. They include Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, as well as two lawyers who worked in the first Trump administration: Mark Paoletta and Matt Whitaker. They each have a mix of experience in both the public and private sector, with several previously working at large law firms.
Whoever Trump picks to lead the Justice Department will have a tall order to fill. On the campaign trail, Trump expressed a desire to overhaul the department, while using it to go after his political enemies.
Vice President-elect JD Vance also suggested in interviews that the attorney general would be the second most important role in the administration behind the president.
However, during his first administration, Trump frequently found himself at odds with the head of the Justice Department. Trump fired his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in November 2018 after Sessions recused himself from an investigation into Trump’s campaign and ties to Russia. Bill Barr later took over the Justice Department, though left in December 2020 before the end of Trump’s first term after publicly refuting Trump’s claims of a stolen election.
Here’s a look at who is rumored to be in the running for the chief law enforcement officer:
>>Sen. Mike Lee. The U.S. senator from Utah previously worked as an attorney at Sidley Austin and Howrey, as well as a federal prosecutor. He also has ties to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Lee grew up surrounded by those in the legal field. Lee’s father Rex Lee served as solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan. His brother, Thomas Rex Lee, is a Utah Supreme Court justice. And Lee, himself, graduated from Brigham Young University Law School.
Early in his career, he served as a law clerk to Judge Dee Benson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, and then later clerked for Alito when the justice was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Lee worked for several years at Sidley, focusing his practice on appellate and Supreme Court litigation, according to his Senate bio.
After he left Sidley, Lee went on to serve as an assistant U.S. attorney in Salt Lake City. From there, in 2006 to 2007, Lee served as general counsel to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.
Then in 2007, Lee went back to clerk for Alito, who had just joined the Supreme Court, for a one-year clerkship.
Later, he went back to private practice, working at now-dissolved Howrey.
Lee has held his Senate seat since 2011.
>>Mark Paoletta. The prominent Washington, D.C., lawyer previously served as counsel to Vice President Mike Pence and then later as general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget during the first Trump administration.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he also previously held stints as a partner at several large law firms earlier in his career, including DLA Piper; Dickstein Shapiro; Keck, Mahin & Cate; and O'Connor & Hannan, some of which have since merged with other firms or dissolved.
Paoletta currently works as a partner at D.C.-based trial and appellate litigation boutique Schaerr Jaffe. He focuses his practice on congressional investigations and public policy, according to his firm bio.
Paoletta is also reportedly working with the Trump transition team to plan Justice Department policies, according to Politico. He has also been outspoken on social media about Trump’s agenda.
Paoletta indicated in a social media post on Tuesday that career attorneys at the DOJ opposed to Trump’s vision for the department should leave. “If these career DOJ employees won’t implement President Trump’s program in good faith, they should leave. Those employees who engage in so-called ‘resistance’ against the duly-elected president’s lawful agenda would be subverting American democracy,” Paoletta wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
“I look forward to President Trump’s team Making America Great Again, especially at the Department of Justice and the FBI,” Paoletta added.
>>Matt Whitaker. The former federal prosecutor served as acting attorney general during Trump’s first term. Before that, Whitaker was chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Earlier in his career, he was appointed as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa in 2004 by President George W. Bush, a position he held until 2009.
Whitaker also previously served as managing partner of what was then called Whitaker Hagenow & Gustoff, a Des Moines-based firm, according to a DOJ bio page.
>>John Ratcliffe. The former director of national intelligence was floated as a pick for AG. After this report was published, Trump announced late Tuesday that he would appoint Ratcliffe to serve as CIA director in his new administration.
Ratcliffe is currently of counsel at litigation, compliance and defense firm Oberheiden, counseling clients on national security and government investigations matters, according to a firm bio.
Ratcliffe previously served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first administration. Before that, Ratcliffe served in Congress for more than five years representing the 4th Congressional District in Texas.
Ratcliffe also was a federal prosecutor. In the George W. Bush administration, Ratcliffe was appointed as chief of an antiterrorism and national security unit within the DOJ. He was later judicially appointed as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.
During his DOJ tenure, Ratcliffe served as a nonpartisan mayor of Heath, Texas, from 2004 to 2012.
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