As President-elect Donald Trump continues to build his Cabinet, Americans are waiting for him to appoint someone to one of the most important positions in the administration: attorney general.
Trump’s pick for attorney general will be one of the most talked about appointments heading into his second term. In his first term, Trump appointed Jeff Sessions, who served as AG for two years, and then appointed Bill Barr, who served during the final two years of Trump’s time in the White House.
Multiple names are being floated for potential replacements for President Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Mark Paoletta
Attorney Mark Paoletta served in the Trump administration as chief counsel and assistant to Vice President Mike Pence before moving to general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Paoletta is a close friend of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni, and he played an important role in Thomas’ confirmation to the High Court.
From 1997 to 2007, Paoletta served as Chief Counsel for Oversight and Investigations for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He now serves on Trump’s transition team and is helping craft Justice Department policy for the second Trump administration, according to Fox News. In an X post on Monday, Paoletta told “career DOJ employees” who “won’t implement President Trump’s program in good faith” to step down.
“Those employees who engage in so-called ‘resistance’ against the duly-elected President’s lawful agenda would be subverting American democracy,” he added. “Finally, those that take such actions would be subject to disciplinary measures, including termination. I look forward to President Trump’s team Making America Great Again, especially at the Department of Justice and the FBI.”
John Ratcliffe
John Ratcliffe served as Trump’s Director of National Intelligence for a year at the end of the president’s first term. Before taking that role, Ratcliffe served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, and was elected to Congress in 2015, where he served for five years as the House representative from Texas’s 4th District.
Ratcliffe was outspoken in his criticism of the FBI and Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation into the spurious claims of Trump’s ties to Russia. Shortly before the 2020 election, Ratcliffe declassified information about the 2016 election that suggested Hillary Clinton’s campaign approved a plan to “stir up a scandal” against Trump that tied him to the Russians, The New York Times reported.
Ratcliffe has remained quiet on the rumors surrounding a potential AG appointment.
Sen. Mike Lee
Utah Senator Mike Lee has been one of the most conservative lawmakers in Washington, D.C., for over a decade. Lee has an extensive legal background, serving as a clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, clerking for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, and working as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Utah. He served as Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.’s general counsel before his election to the Senate in 2010.
Lee won his third term in office in 2022. He was a strong critic of Trump in 2016, voting for independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin. Lee, however, quickly became a staunch Trump ally of Trump. Six years later, Trump backed Lee’s re-election bid when McMullin challenged him for the Senate in an election that Lee won by over 10 points.
Lee told The Dispatch earlier this year that after Trump started governing in 2017, Lee saw that “he aligned a lot more with Republican ideals than I expected. In some areas, I was particularly surprised how well things went.”
Asked about a possible role in the Trump administration last week, Lee told Deseret News, “I have the job I want.”
“And I look forward to working in the next Congress and with President Trump and his team to implement his agenda and the reform agenda that Republicans have offered and campaigned on, and it’s going to be an exciting time,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Judge Aileen Cannon
ABC News reported last month that District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who threw out the classified documents case against Trump earlier this year, appeared on a Trump ream document as a potential attorney general pick. The document was reportedly written by Trump’s top advisers. Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump in July, ruling that “Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”
Cannon, whom Trump appointed in 2020, was born in Colombia and grew up in Miami. From 2008 to 2009, she clerked for Steven Colloton, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Iowa. Cannon was then an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida from 2013 to 2020.
Cannon also presided over the case of Ryan Routh, who was charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at his West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course in September. Routh’s lawyers have asked Cannon to recuse herself from the case, citing her potential appointment to a higher position in the second Trump administration.
Matthew Whitaker
A candidate who already has some experience in the position is former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, whom Trump tapped to fill the position for a short time between the stints of Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr.
Whitaker served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa from 2004 until 2009. He then worked as a managing partner of a general practice law firm in Des Moines, Iowa, from 2009 to 2017. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Whitaker to serve as his chief of staff in 2017. After Sessions resigned in November 2018, Whitaker was tapped by Trump to serve as Acting Attorney General, a position he held until February 2019 when Barr took over.
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Whitaker did not tell Fox News whether he was interested in the position in the second Trump administration, saying, “[Trump’s] going to want someone who he knows, likes and trusts. He’s going to want someone who was there from the beginning.”
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey
Another name floated for AG is the recently appointed Missouri Attorney General, Andrew Bailey. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson appointed Bailey after former Missouri AG Eric Schmitt ran for Senate and won in 2022. As the state’s chief law enforcement officer, Bailey has challenged the Biden administration in dozens of lawsuits including accusing the federal government of “hid[ing] information from Americans” about “flying of illegal immigrants into Missouri.”
Bailey served as general counsel of the Missouri Department of Corrections and as general counsel for Parson. As attorney general, Bailey has also gone after the abortion drug mifepristone, arguing that it is too dangerous and seeking to ensure “long-standing safety requirements” are put in place for the drug.
In 2023, Bailey announced new restrictions on gender procedures for adults and children. The new rules required people to undergo 18 months of therapy before receiving gender treatments.
As Trump continues to announce cabinet positions following his election victory, the attorney general pick could come at any time. Trump’s pick then must be confirmed by a majority of the Senate, which will be under Republican control beginning in January.
