Mizelle Chad Cos

SEE MRS KK TRUMP JUDGE YOUNGEST ~ aba

SEE ED FUCKING MARTIN DC BAR GRAB

CORNELL LAW, FLORIDA MAN CLERKED FOR SENTELLE FEDSOC

INGRSSIA?

MAZZARA

===

Mizelle is married to Chad Mizelle.^[30][31][32] He served as acting general counsel of the United States Department of Homeland Security in the administration of Donald Trump,^[33][34] before joining Jones Day in January 2021. Governor Ron DeSantis then appointed him to the 13th Judicial Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission in the state court in Hillsborough County.^[7]

GGL 6 26

AI Overview

Leonard Leo, a 1989 graduate of Cornell Law School, founded the school’s Federalist Society student chapter in the fall of 1986. While at Cornell, he laid the foundational roots for his later career as the co-chairman of the Federalist Society and a central figure in reshaping the conservative federal judiciary. [1, 2,, 4]

Throughout the conservative legal movement, organizations and initiatives closely linked to Leo have drawn financial support and institutional backing from foundations and advocacy networks associated with Charles Koch, such as the Charles Koch Foundation. [1,]

The Cornell Connection

Chapter Founding: Leonard Leo started the ⁠Cornell University Federalist Society as a law student in the 1980s. He then went on to join the national organization in 1991, playing a major role in its explosive growth and its prominent position as a pipeline for conservative judicial nominations. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Historical Origins: The national Federalist Society was originally founded in 1982 by law students at Yale and the University of Chicago as a forum to promote limited government and constitutional originalism. [1]

The Koch Connection

Judiciary Funding: Networks and institutes associated with Charles Koch have heavily funded conservative legal groups and academic centers. These efforts have been instrumental in the rise of conservative legal networks and judicial pipeline programs. [1,, 3]

Broader Influence: The Charles Koch Foundation is a prominent backer of free-market legal advocacy groups and has poured tens of millions of dollars into various university law programs to promote constitutional principles and reduce federal regulation. [1,]

For a deeper dive into how this network has reshaped the American legal system, you can explore the insights detailed by ⁠ProPublica and the ⁠Yale Daily News. [1, 2]

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A former Department of Justice chief of staff suggested that the department flout a court order from a federal inquiry, all while said judge pushes an inquiry into whether or not the department advised Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to deliberately flout one of his orders from March.

On Tuesday morning, senior Politico reporter Kyle Cheney highlighted a post to X from Chad Mizelle, who served as DOJ chief of staff from the start of Donald Trump's second term through October, departing the office for unspecified reasons. In the post, he urged the DOJ to "ignore" a demand for testimony from Judge James Boasberg.

"DOJ should not give loser Boasberg the time of day," Mizelle wrote. "Don't participate in his clown show. Ignore him. In the meantime, Congress needs to start acting like a co-equal [sic] branch and initiate its own inquiry into Boasberg."

Boasberg's inquiry seeks to determine if DHS intentionally disobeyed his order from March to prevent 137 Venezuelan men from being deported to the infamously violent CECOT prison in El Salvador, and if they were advised to do so by the DOJ. As Cheney highlighted in his own post, Mizelle, who was DOJ chief of staff at the time of the order, appears to be making the same suggestion now.

"Boasberg is trying to determine whether people inside DOJ advised Kristi Noem et al to blow off a court order," Cheney wrote. "Tonight, the guy who was chief of staff at the time of the events in question is telling DOJ … to blow off Boasberg’s order."

Boasberg initially made the ruling due to concerns that the men had not received due process, after lawyers for the men frantically petitioned the court to prevent their deportations. Despite his order, the planes carrying the men were not turned around. Noem previously claimed in November that she gave the order to turn over the Venezuelan men to El Salvadoron the advice of Trump administration lawyers.

The judge is now seeking testimony from two DOJ lawyers who were involved in the March deportation effort, including one who has since been fired for defying the Trump administration's plans.

---

1125 AN

Politico reporter Josh Gerstein writes that former Pam Bondi Chief of Staff and Stephen Miller ally Chad Mizelle wants Congress to declare war on judges who make decisions against President Donald Trump’s policies.

Mizelle, who announced his departure as Department of Justice chief of staff in September, urged congressional Republicans to step up campaigns to impeach federal judges who've blocked Trump policies.

“What’s going to force the Supreme Court to do something is fundamentally political pressure. It’s going to be when Congress starts impeaching judges and saying … ‘You are now encroaching into our territory,’” Mizelle said during at the Federalist Society’s annual lawyers’ meeting in Washington.

“This is a problem of leftist politics,” said Mizelle, arguing that earlier Republican administrations did not face as many decisions blocking their policies. George Bush, he said, had six injunctions against him, while Obama had 12. Trump endured 64 injunctions in his first administration compared to Biden’s 14 — and with 40 issued in the first six months of Trump’s second administration.

“Since 1963 over three quarters of injunctions were issued against Trump,” argued Mizelle, arguing that the Supreme Court has given Trump a “92 percent win rate” for petitions it filed with the Supreme Court, compared to Biden’s win rate of only 50 percent.

But Gerstein reports Mizelle “turned heads” at the conference by calling for Congress to step up efforts to impeach judges who have blocked Trump policies, and his “impeachment battle cry” followed a “cryptic story” he shared that appeared to involve an implicit threat his father once issued to put down a stray cat in the family’s yard.

“What do I think [Trump] should do? He should stand up, and he’s already done this, and say, ‘Judges, I know how to deal with stray cats,’” said Mizelle, who described his father's threat to put down the cat as indicative of having a "father from Mississippi."

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Over 70 legal experts and a trio of organizations have sent the Florida Bar an ethics complaint calling for an investigation and "appropriate sanctions" against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of engaging in "serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice."

The 23-page complaint, filed Thursday, is signed by Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers Defending American Democracy, Lawyers for the Rule of Law, and individual attorneys, law professors, and former judges. It was first reported by the Miami Herald.

"We file this complaint recognizing that Ms. Bondi currently serves as the attorney general of the United States, the highest-ranking lawyer in the United States government," the coalition wrote. "Indeed, we bring Ms. Bondi's misconduct to your attention precisely because Ms. Bondi holds this exalted position, with the attendant responsibilities for subordinate lawyers under her authority who carry out her directives, and because the complaint highlights for the entire legal profession the importance of ethical rules to our independent, self-regulating profession."

"Ms. Bondi, personally and through her senior management, has sought to compel Department of Justice lawyers to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of 'zealous advocacy.'"

After former Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration to lead the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) last November, then-President-elect Donald Trump swiftly announced Bondi as his new pick. Senate Republicans and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) confirmed her in February, despite various concerns, including her lobbyist work for corporate giants.

IFrame Content

On Bondi's first day, she moved to dissolve teams that probed foreign lobbying and threats posed by corporate misconduct, revive enforcement of the federal death penalty, investigate DOJ officials who prosecuted Trump, defund sanctuary cities, and end diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs. She also issued a memorandum highlighted in the new complaint.

"The gravamen of this complaint is that Ms. Bondi, personally and through her senior management, has sought to compel Department of Justice lawyers to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of 'zealous advocacy' as announced in her memorandum to all Department employees, issued on her first day in office, threatening employees with discipline and possible termination for falling short," the filing states.

The complaint details "three glaring examples of department lawyers being terminated or forced to resign as a result of demands that they act unethically issued by Ms. Bondi or a member of her senior management, including Emil Bove, initially the acting deputy attorney general (the No. 2 position in the department) and now the principal associate deputy attorney general (the No. 3 position); Todd Blanche, the current deputy attorney general; and Edward Martin, then interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and now chief of the Justice Department's 'Weaponization Working Group' and the department's pardon attorney."

"Through her 'zealous advocacy' memorandum and its application in these three cases, Ms. Bondi has sent a message to all Justice Department lawyers that they must disregard the applicable rules of professional conduct, fundamental ethical principles, and long-standing norms of the Department in order to zealously pursue the president's political objectives—and, if they fail to do so, they will be disciplined or fired," the filing adds. "However, as Ms. Bondi and her senior staff are fond of saying, no one is above the law, and this includes Ms. Bondi."

The Florida Bar confirmed receipt of the complaint to the Miami Herald but did not comment further. The coalition noted that "we file this complaint notwithstanding the Florida Bar's recent reply to two previous ethics complaints filed against Ms. Bondi that it 'does not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.'"

"The purported rationale for declining to investigate or prosecute is that such action 'could encroach on the authority of the federal government concerning these officials and the exercise of their duties,'" the coalition continued. "The Florida Bar's dismissal is unsupported by history or precedent."

Chad Mizelle, DOJ chief of staff, suggested in a statement to the Miami Herald that the new call for a probe of Bondi will be unsuccessful, like the previous submissions.

"The Florida Bar has twice rejected performative attempts by these out-of-state lawyers to weaponize the bar complaint process against AG Bondi," said Mizelle. "This third vexatious attempt will fail to do anything other than prove that the signatories have less intelligence—and independent thoughts—than sheep."

Meanwhile, Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, said in a statement that "since her first day on the job, Pam Bondi has made clear that she plans to use the Department of Justice for political pursuits, and she has done just that."

"Especially as the nation’s highest ranking legal officer," Eisen added, "she must be held to account for her actions that threaten the rule of law and the administration of justice."

Trump allies launch a bid to take control of the D.C. Bar Association

archiescom - March 8, 2025

WASHINGTON — Two of President Donald Trump’s allies have launched bids for leadership roles with the D.C. Bar Association, an under-the-radar effort that would give them more control over the influential legal group.

The push comes amid bar associations’ confrontations with the Trump administration, and some federal attorneys have looked to their state groups for ethical guidance amid Trump’s rapid reshaping of government.

Bradley Bondi — a lawyer who is Attorney General Pam Bondi’s brother — and Alicia Long — a deputy to Ed Martin, Trump’s interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — are running for president and treasurer. The election runs from April to June, according to the organization’s website.

While the general public may not pay much attention to bar associations, lawyers do. The nongovernmental groups decide who gets to be a lawyer — and who gets to stay a lawyer when misconduct allegations are involved. The D.C. Bar, as it is known, has more than 120,000 members, and, by virtue of its location, it is where a significant number of federal attorneys are licensed.

The effort to take control of the D.C. Bar follows warnings Trump administration officials have directed at bar associations, which lawyers inside and outside the government have suggested could play a role in slowing down legally questionable elements of Trump’s agenda.

On one of her first days as attorney general, Pam Bondi warned career lawyers that they could be fired for refusing to carry out orders because of any personal objections. Meanwhile, the D.C. Bar maintains a confidential legal ethics hotline for members to submit concerns.

In a statement to NBC News after this article published, Bondi pledged to protect the D.C. Bar from being politicized and noted that he has been an active member of the organization for 26 years.

“The Bar has a non-partisan mission, which I intend to vigilantly protect against any push to politicize it,” he said.

“My effort to run for DC Bar president began months before the federal elections and has no connection with national politics at all. With my six years of DC Bar leadership — having been elected two times to a Bar leadership position — three years in public service, and over 20 years in private practice and as a law professor, my record of serving the legal community with that integrity is plain to see,” he added.

Bondi also said he wants to focus on “efficiency and practical benefits,” including “free on-demand continuing legal education for all 50 states” and more educational programs and pro-bono opportunities.

“This isn’t about politics; I’m running to help strengthen our profession and support members of the Bar no matter what their beliefs or backgrounds,” he said.

Bondi and Long each face one opponent. If elected, they would join the professional organization’s 23-person Board of Governors. Though the D.C. Bar does not have a direct role in disciplining lawyers for misconduct, its board does recommend members to sit on the D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility, the disciplinary arm of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Disciplinary cases are brought forward by a separate Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates and prosecutes ethical complaints against lawyers.

With Republicans in control of the House and the Senate, bar discipline could be one of the last remaining ways to hold Trump-appointed attorneys accountable. On Thursday, a group of Democratic senators wrote a letter to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel expressing “grave concerns” about some of the highly unusual steps Martin has taken since he became interim U.S. attorney. The letter accused him of “serious violations of professional conduct” and abusing his position. Martin did not respond to requests for comment.

Some Trump attorneys have faced sanctions in Washington for their actions. Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in Washington last year in the wake of his efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss; a committee of the Board on Professional Responsibility found that what it called his “utter disregard for facts denigrates the legal profession.”

Jeffrey Clark — a former Justice Department lawyer whom Trump tried to make attorney general in the days before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack — appeared before the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility last year and invoked the Fifth Amendment. A panel made a preliminary determination that he had committed an ethical violation and recommended in August that he be suspended from practicing law for two years. With Trump back in the White House, Clark is now acting administrator of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

And a Republican report issued in December by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, of Georgia, alleged possible coordination between House Jan. 6 investigators and the D.C. Bar to target an attorney who represented a former Trump White House aide. (The Office of Disciplinary Counsel dismissed that complaint last year.)

Bondi’s and Long’s bids quickly caused some alarm among attorneys in Washington. An email seen by NBC News and sent to dozens of Washington-area lawyers — and also shared on social media — described the duo as “Trump/Pam Bondi loyalists” who were “making a bid to take over the DC Bar” and encouraged recipients to pay attention and vote.

An attorney at a federal agency said the pro-Trump effort to win leadership positions at the D.C. Bar suggests the administration “may be getting pushback internally” from lawyers who are concerned about potential professional consequences for carrying out Trump’s agenda.

“They know this is a potential weakness,” this person added.

Bondi and Long did not respond to requests for comment. NBC News has reached out to the D.C. Bar for comment.

Bondi’s opponent, Diane A. Seltzer, an attorney with a focus on employment law who already serves on the D.C. Bar’s Board of Governors, said she decided to run because she saw it as the culmination of decades of bar leadership experience at a critical time in history.

“I want to be able to support the members of our bar in this time of governmental chaos,” she said. “Our legal system needs a bar that understands and sees them and can support them in ways that will be helpful and keep everyone’s energy up and keep people from giving up or burning out.”

The D.C. Bar does not control the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, but anyone can submit a complaint there, which is then heard by the Board of Professional Responsibility. The D.C. Bar seeks candidates for the Board of Professional Responsibility, but the D.C. Court of Appeals ultimately chooses the candidates.

There are fears among some Washington lawyers, however, that with Trump-supporting officials in place, the D.C. Bar might choose to ignore Court of Appeals rulings or orders from the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

“I would never want to be president of a bar that could do that or that would do that,” Seltzer said. “I wouldn’t want to be president of a bar where those lines could be blurred and we would say, ‘I am not going to follow what the Court of Appeals has decided or what the Office of Disciplinary Counsel has ordered.’”

The disciplinary process can be protracted. Jennifer Kerkhoff Muyskens — a former assistant U.S. attorney in Washington who led the aggressive prosecution of anti-Trump protesters arrested en masse during Trump’s first inauguration in 2017 — is only now facing a disciplinary hearing eight years later, accused of hiding exculpatory evidence from defendants.

The Trump administration has had a contentious relationship with bar associations, and Republicans have long accused them of having a left-wing bent — tensions that reached a boiling point in Trump’s first term when the American Bar Association, the national bar organization, rated several of his judicial picks as “not qualified” for the jobs they were nominated for.

Project 2025 took aim at the American Bar Association in its policy road map for a future conservative administration, calling for the president to issue an executive order pursuing antitrust measures against it. In one of his first moves as president, Trump signed an executive order that said bar associations could be targeted for investigations over their diversity programs.

Last month, the American Bar Association lambasted what it described as the Trump administration’s “wide-scale affronts to the rule of law itself.” After billionaire Elon Musk, who is overseeing Trump’s effort to reshape government, called for judges who have ruled against Trump to be impeached, the ABA said in a new statement Tuesday that it would “not stay silent in the face of efforts to remake the legal profession into something that rewards those who agree with the government and punishes those who do not.” It added that such attempts at intimidation “cannot be sanctioned or normalized.”

On Wednesday, Chad Mizelle, the Justice Department’s chief of staff, punched back at the ABA, posting to X that “they disguise their advocacy as work to ‘promote the best quality legal education, competence, ethical conduct and professionalism, and pro bono and public service work in the legal profession,’ but they never mention that they also work hand-in-hand on left-wing causes.”

He also wrote that the bar association’s “dedication to left-wing activism undermines justice” and that under the attorney general’s “leadership, DOJ is carrying out President Trump’s executive orders putting an end to radical DEI programs, and we’re all over the ABA’s illegal and immoral diversity mandates for law school accreditation.”

In 2020, the ABA rated Mizelle’s wife, Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, as “not qualified” to serve as a U.S. district court judge in Florida. She was 33 at the time and the youngest person Trump had tapped for the lifetime appointment. She was confirmed to the seat in November 2020.

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NBC 3 25

Allan Smith and Ryan J. Reilly

While the general public may not pay much attention to bar associations, lawyers do. The nongovernmental groups decide who gets to be a lawyer — and who gets to stay a lawyer when misconduct allegations are involved. The D.C. Bar, as it is known, has more than 120,000 members, and, by virtue of its location, it is where a significant number of federal attorneys are licensed.

The effort to take control of the D.C. Bar follows warnings Trump administration officials have directed at bar associations, which lawyers inside and outside the government have suggested could play a role in slowing down legally questionable elements of Trump’s agenda.

In a statement to NBC News after this article published, Bondi pledged to protect the D.C. Bar from being politicized and noted that he has been an active member of the organization for 26 years.

"The Bar has a non-partisan mission, which I intend to vigilantly protect against any push to politicize it," he said.

"My effort to run for DC Bar president began months before the federal elections and has no connection with national politics at all. With my six years of DC Bar leadership — having been elected two times to a Bar leadership position — three years in public service, and over 20 years in private practice and as a law professor, my record of serving the legal community with that integrity is plain to see," he added.

Bondi also said he wants to focus on "efficiency and practical benefits," including "free on-demand continuing legal education for all 50 states" and more educational programs and pro-bono opportunities.

"This isn’t about politics; I’m running to help strengthen our profession and support members of the Bar no matter what their beliefs or backgrounds," he said.

Bondi and Long each face one opponent. If elected, they would join the professional organization’s 23-person Board of Governors. Though the D.C. Bar does not have a direct role in disciplining lawyers for misconduct, its board does recommend members to sit on the D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility, the disciplinary arm of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Disciplinary cases are brought forward by a separate Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates and prosecutes ethical complaints against lawyers.

With Republicans in control of the House and the Senate, bar discipline could be one of the last remaining ways to hold Trump-appointed attorneys accountable. On Thursday, a group of Democratic senators wrote a letter to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel expressing “grave concerns” about some of the highly unusual steps Martin has taken since he became interim U.S. attorney. The letter accused him of “serious violations of professional conduct” and abusing his position. Martin did not respond to requests for comment.

Jeffrey Clark — a former Justice Department lawyer whom Trump tried to make attorney general in the days before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack — appeared before the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility last year and invoked the Fifth Amendment. A panel made a preliminary determination that he had committed an ethical violation and recommended in August that he be suspended from practicing law for two years. With Trump back in the White House, Clark is now acting administrator of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Trump administrationTrump signs order to gut Voice of America, other agencies

Bondi’s and Long’s bids quickly caused some alarm among attorneys in Washington. An email seen by NBC News and sent to dozens of Washington-area lawyers — and also shared on social media — described the duo as “Trump/Pam Bondi loyalists” who were “making a bid to take over the DC Bar” and encouraged recipients to pay attention and vote.

“They know this is a potential weakness,” this person added.

Bondi and Long did not respond to requests for comment. NBC News has reached out to the D.C. Bar for comment.

Bondi’s opponent, Diane A. Seltzer, an attorney with a focus on employment law who already serves on the D.C. Bar’s Board of Governors, said she decided to run because she saw it as the culmination of decades of bar leadership experience at a critical time in history.

IFrame Content

Project 2025 took aim at the American Bar Association in its policy road map for a future conservative administration, calling for the president to issue an executive order pursuing antitrust measures against it. In one of his first moves as president, Trump signed an executive order that said bar associations could be targeted for investigations over their diversity programs.

Last month, the American Bar Association lambasted what it described as the Trump administration’s “wide-scale affronts to the rule of law itself.” After billionaire Elon Musk, who is overseeing Trump’s effort to reshape government, called for judges who have ruled against Trump to be impeached, the ABA said in a new statement Tuesday that it would “not stay silent in the face of efforts to remake the legal profession into something that rewards those who agree with the government and punishes those who do not.” It added that such attempts at intimidation “cannot be sanctioned or normalized.”

On Wednesday, Chad Mizelle, the Justice Department’s chief of staff, punched back at the ABA, posting to X that “they disguise their advocacy as work to ‘promote the best quality legal education, competence, ethical conduct and professionalism, and pro bono and public service work in the legal profession,’ but they never mention that they also work hand-in-hand on left-wing causes.”

He also wrote that the bar association’s “dedication to left-wing activism undermines justice” and that under the attorney general’s “leadership, DOJ is carrying out President Trump’s executive orders putting an end to radical DEI programs, and we’re all over the ABA’s illegal and immoral diversity mandates for law school accreditation.”

FEDSOC OFF BS

Chad R. Mizelle was previously Of Counsel with the international law firm Jones Day, where his practice focused on government regulation and national security issues. Previously, Chad served as the Acting General Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, where he managed more than 2,200 lawyers.

As the top lawyer at DHS, Chad directed all legal activities related to the Agency’s broad mission, including facilitating international trade and travel (through Customs and the Coast Guard), responding to the COVID-19 crisis and other natural disasters (through FEMA), and working with the private sector to defend critical infrastructure and supply chains against cyber-attacks (through the Secret Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency).

Prior to serving as Acting General Counsel, Chad served as the Chief of Staff at DHS. He also served at the White House as Associate Counsel to the President and at the Department of Justice as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General. Chad clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle of the D.C. Circuit. He received his J.D. from Cornell Law School and his B.A. from the University of Florida.

===

NYT NO LNX

Some of the Lawyers Who May Fill a Second Trump Administration

Donald Trump’s allies are hoping to install a different species of legal gatekeeper throughout the federal government. Here are some of the potential prospects.

Donald Trump walks in a suit outside the White House heading to the Oval Office.

Former President Donald J. Trump with John McEntee, one of his most trusted aides.Credit...Pool photo by Chris Kleponis

Jonathan SwanCharlie SavageMaggie Haberman

By Jonathan Swan Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman

Nov. 1, 2023

Election Day is a year away, but key allies of former President Donald J. Trump are already thinking about staffing a potential administration, including by filling White House and agency legal positions with aggressive and ideologically like-minded lawyers.

Trump allies are preparing to populate a new administration with a different breed of lawyer — a departure from the type that stymied part of his first-term agenda and that despite their mainstream conservative credentials are seen as too cautious by people close to the former president. They are seeking lawyers in federal agencies and in the White House committed to his “America First” ideology and willing to use edgy theories to advance his cause.

It is too early to say with any certainty whom Mr. Trump would select were he to win a second term starting in 2025. But several conservative nonprofits, staffed by people who are likely to take on senior White House positions if there is a second Trump administration, have been putting together lists of prospects.

Inside Trump’s 2025 Plans

If Trump Wins, His Allies Want Lawyers Who Will Bless a More Radical Agenda

At Project 2025, a well-funded effort by the Heritage Foundation to prepare personnel and policy for the next conservative administration, John McEntee, one of Mr. Trump’s most trusted aides, is part of a team searching for potential lawyers.

A person familiar with the Heritage 2025 project said it was listing multiple options for every position. Some of the names under early and unofficial consideration are:

Joseph E. Schmitz as the Pentagon’s top lawyer. A Bush-era Pentagon inspector general, he argued after the 2020 election that the Supreme Court or the vice president, Mike Pence, should intervene to overturn Mr. Trump’s loss.

Image

Joseph E. Schmitz looks to the side of the camera as he stands in a suit with an orange tie.

Joseph E. Schmitz in 2004.

Sarah B. Rogers in the Homeland Security Department. She is a former tobacco lawyer who brought a lawsuit against New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, on behalf of the National Rifle Association as state prosecutors were investigating its finances.

Noah B. Peters in the Labor Department. He is a former solicitor for the Federal Labor Relations Authority who is also representing the N.R.A. in its legal troubles in New York. He has written columns critical of Big Tech for conservative websites like The Daily Caller and The Federalist.

James R. Lawrence III in the Health and Human Services Department. He is a critic of regulations and vaccine mandates whom Mr. Trump installed as acting chief counsel at the Food and Drug Administration in the waning days of his presidency.

Adam Candeub in the Commerce Department. He is a Michigan State University law professor and a critic of Silicon Valley. The Trump White House tried to install Mr. Candeub atop the Justice Department’s antitrust division in 2020, a move the attorney general at the time, William P. Barr, blocked, believing he lacked relevant experience, according to people familiar with the matter. He was later tapped for another role in the Justice Department.

A similar personnel effort is being led by Stephen Miller, a former top policy aide in the Trump White House. He has since founded a nonprofit group, America First Legal, and has told colleagues that one of its goals is to spend several years evaluating conservative lawyers to find those who have the “spine” to be effective in an ideologically like-minded 2025 administration.

The lawyers on Mr. Miller’s list, according to a person familiar with it, include:

Chad Mizelle, who as former acting general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security in the Trump administration worked closely with Mr. Miller to enact hard-line immigration policies.

Jonathan Mitchell, a former solicitor general of Texas who is considered a key architect of a state law that allowed private citizens to enforce anti-abortion restrictions.

Aaron Reitz, the chief of staff for Senator Ted Cruz and a former deputy attorney general under Mr. Miller’s ally in Texas, Ken Paxton, who challenged many Biden policies in court. On a conservative podcast in late 2021, Mr. Reitz said that “the sort of hyper-caution that I think too often Republicans demonstrate, not just in the legal space but political and elsewhere, the time for that is over,” and that on Mr. Paxton’s team, “our soldiers are lawyers and our weapons are lawsuits and our tactic is lawfare.”

Brent Webster, first assistant deputy attorney general in Texas under Mr. Paxton who has been deeply involved in the office’s antitrust cases, and who helped Mr. Paxton file a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn President Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Reed Rubinstein, who worked in the Trump administration in various roles at the Justice, Education and Treasury departments, and is now at Mr. Miller’s group.

John Zadrozny, a former legislative counsel at the Federation for American Immigration Reform who worked in several politically appointed roles in the Trump administration, where he was considered a Miller ally. He is now at America First Legal.

Jonathan Swan is a political reporter who focuses on campaigns and Congress. As a reporter for Axios, he won an Emmy Award for his 2020 interview of then-President Donald J. Trump, and the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Aldo Beckman Award for “overall excellence in White House coverage” in 2022. More about Jonathan Swan

Charlie Savage writes about national security and legal policy. He has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about Charlie Savage

Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent and the author of “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.” She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. More about Maggie Haberman

A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 2, 2023, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: Prospects for a Second Term. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

See more on: Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, John McEntee, Heritage Foundation, Republican Party, 2024 Elections: News, Polls and Analysis

===

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Project 2025's plans for the Justice Department

Law Dork | Chris Geidner

https://www.lawdork.com › project-2025-justice-depart...](https://www.lawdork.com/p/project-2025-justice-department-plans)

Jul 8, 2024 — Project 2025 is a frightening, authoritarian missive with Christian nationalism values at its core that aims to dismantle large swaths of the federal ...

[### Trump allies launch a bid to take control of the D.C. Bar ...

NBC News

https://www.nbcnews.com › trump-administration › tru...](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-allies-bradley-bondi-control-dc-bar-association-rcna195253)

Mar 7, 2025 — Project 2025 took aim at the American Bar Association in its policy road map for a future conservative administration, calling for the president ...

[### Statement by President-elect Donald J. Trump Announcing ...

The American Presidency Project

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu › documents › statemen...](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-president-elect-donald-j-trump-announcing-the-nomination-chad-mizelle-chief)

Dec 21, 2024 — I am pleased to announce that Chad Mizelle will serve as Chief of Staff at the Department of Justice, where he will work with our wonderful Attorney General ...

[### Some of the Lawyers Who May Fill a Second Trump ...

The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com › U.S. › Politics](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/us/politics/trump-2025-potential-lawyers.html)

Nov 1, 2023 — At Project 2025, a well-funded effort by the Heritage ... Chad Mizelle, who as former acting general counsel of the Department ...

[### Project 2025 is everywhere. Don't believe the distancing or ...

Law Dork | Chris Geidner

https://www.lawdork.com › project-2025-is-everywhere](https://www.lawdork.com/p/project-2025-is-everywhere)

Aug 8, 2024 — Project 2025 has nothing to do with Trump and, in any event, that it's “winding down,” as NBC News and others credulously reported. Do not believe it.

[### Chad Mizelle

The Federalist Society

https://fedsoc.org › contributors › chad-mizelle](https://fedsoc.org/contributors/chad-mizelle)

Mizelle was previously Of Counsel with the international law firm Jones Day, where his practice focused on government regulation and national security issues.

[### Casten, Schakowsky, Nadler, 72 House Democrats Demand ...

Congressman Sean Casten (.gov)

https://casten.house.gov › media › press-releases › casten...](https://casten.house.gov/media/press-releases/casten-schakowsky-nadler-72-house-democrats-demand-doj-enforce-face-act-protect-womens-health-clinics)

5 days ago — On January 24th, 2025, your incoming Chief of Staff, Chad Mizelle, penned a memorandum indicating that “future abortion-related FACE Act ...

[### Trump administration tracker shows his latest top staff picks ...

CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com › Politics](https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trump-administration-nominees-2025/)

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Dec. 21 that he picked Chad Mizelle to serve as the Chief of Staff at the Department of Justice. "I am pleased to ...

[### Trump Picks: See New Administration Staff Tapped for 2025

Business Insider

https://www.businessinsider.com › Politics](https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-white-house-staff-cabinet-picks-list-2024-11)

Dec 22, 2024 — Trump selected Chad Mizelle as the next chief of staff at the Department of Justice. Mizelle, a Trump loyalist and former Department of Homeland ...

[### Judge blocks Trump from enforcing 'chilling' order against ... WXPR

https://www.wxpr.org › 2025-03-12 › judge-blocks-tru...](https://www.wxpr.org/2025-03-12/judge-blocks-trump-from-enforcing-chilling-order-against-law-firm)

3 days ago — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked parts of President Trump's executive order targeting a prominent law firm for its ...

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