President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday selected two of his personal attorneys for top jobs at the Justice Department.
He tapped his defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, to serve as the next deputy attorney general.
"Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken System of Justice for far too long," Trump said in a statement.
He continued: "Todd prosecuted gangs and other federal crimes as a Chief in the Southern District of New York United States Attorney's Office, clerked for two Federal Judges, and graduated with Honors from law school, while working full time at the SDNY."
The president-elect also tapped another one of his criminal defense attorneys, Emil Bove, to be the principal associate deputy attorney general.
"Emil is a tough and strong attorney, who will be a crucial part of the Justice Department, rooting out corruption and crime," Trump said in his statement. "Emil prosecuted terrorists and international drug traffickers as a Chief of the National Security Unit in the Southern District of New York United States Attorney's Office, clerked for two Federal Judges, and graduated with Honors from Georgetown University Law Center."
Blanche spearheaded Trump's defense in the Manhattan district attorney's hush-money case, in which Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Bove also played a key role in the case.
Both lawyers also defended Trump in the special counsel Jack Smith's federal case related to Trump's handling of classified government documents that he took with him upon leaving the White House in January 2021. A federal judge in Florida dismissed that case earlier this year.
Trump on Thursday also announced that another one of his lawyers, D. John Sauer, had been nominated for solicitor general at the Justice Department.
Sauer played a lead role in arguing Trump's case for presidential immunity before the Supreme Court this year.
"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.
Trump pledged throughout the campaign that he would root out what he described as corruption and political bias at the US Justice Department. He and his allies have also said they would purge the federal government of employees deemed disloyal to Trump and replace them with those who would carry out his agenda.
Trump demonstrated his commitment to that pledge this week, tapping longtime loyalists, some of whom have little or no relevant experience in connection to the roles they were nominated for, to key Cabinet and administration positions.
On Wednesday, Trump announced that he had nominated former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz for attorney general, a move that stunned legal analysts and even Gaetz's own former colleagues in Congress.
Trump also tapped the Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and the former independent presidential candidate and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
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