D-Day At DOJ: The Trump Administration's 'Beachhead' Team For The Justice Department
Here are the 24 individuals who will be holding down the fort at the Justice Department for the Trump Administration.
Today is Inauguration Day, the official transfer of power from one presidential administration to the next. At 12:01 p.m., after Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States, the Obama Administration will come to an end and the Trump Administration will begin.
The transition at the Department of Justice, like the Trump transition more generally, has been a bit delayed and rocky, as we’ve chronicled in these pages. In our earlier deep dive into the DOJ transition process, we talked about how some lawyers received offers of “beachhead” positions at the Justice Department that were almost immediately taken back or called into question.
(For an explanation of “beachhead” or “landing” teams – political but non-Senate-confirmed appointees who take over federal agencies on day one, representing the views of the new administration and serving on an interim basis while PAS appointees go through the confirmation process – see our prior post, or this Politico article.)
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It seems that the confusion over the Justice Department beachhead positions has been resolved, albeit at the eleventh hour. Last night, a list of the two dozen individuals on the Trump Administration’s DOJ beachhead team made the rounds. We’ve posted the full list on the next page.
This is probably a few weeks later than ideal. Chris Christie, before he was unceremoniously ousted as the head of Trump’s transition team some ten weeks ago, had been working on landing teams and hoping to have their members selected before the new year. But the post-Christie confusion, combined with dilatory decision-making by both President-elect Trump and incoming attorney general Jeff Sessions, slowed things down.
(According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump has had little interest in the minutiae of his transition, saying it was ‘bad karma’ to get too involved, according to a person who spoke with him at the time. At one point, he wanted to halt the planning altogether, out of superstition, the person said.”)
To ease the transition, a number of DOJ officials from the Obama Administration will stay past Inauguration Day. Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates will serve as Acting Attorney General until a new attorney general (presumably Jeff Sessions) gets confirmed. In addition, currently serving U.S. Attorneys and Marshals can remain in place as the process of identifying and confirming their successors moves forward. (It should be noted, in fairness to the Trump Administration, that officials from a prior administration “holding over” to facilitate transition is not unusual.)
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Turning to the members of the Trump Administration’s landing team for the Justice Department, they are, taken as a whole, conservative and well-credentialed. Seven of the 24 clerked for the Supreme Court, all for justices on the right side of the Court: Jonathan Berry (Alito), Jennifer Bandy (Thomas), Noel Francisco (Scalia), Curtis Gannon (Scalia), Michael Murray (Kennedy), Ryan Newman (Alito), and Scott Stewart (Thomas). Three of the 24 – Noel Francisco, John Gore, and Michael Murray – appeared on the list we posted last night of Jones Day lawyers joining the administration.
Also as one might expect from the Trump Administration, the group skews heavily male. Of the 24 team members, it appears that just five are women.
Congratulations to these distinguished lawyers on their impressive new posts, and best of luck to them in their mission of Making the DOJ Great Again.
(Flip to the next page for the complete list of the Trump Administration’s DOJ beachhead appointees.)
Trump’s administration riddled with staffing holes [Politico]
Trump’s ‘beachhead’ teams primed to grab agencies’ reins at noon Friday [Politico]
Trump will allow U.S. attorneys to stay past Friday [Politico]
A Trump Administration, With Obama Staff Members Filling In the Gaps [New York Times]
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David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].
