Another one of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers was confirmed as a federal appeals court judge on Monday, when the Senate voted 48-43 to place Justin Smith on the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. Smith has been Trump’s lead attorney at the Supreme Court in the president’s effort to upend the millions of dollars in damages that E. Jean Carroll won against him for sexual abuse and defamation.
Smith’s confirmation follows Emil Bove’s confirmation to the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. It also follows Trump’s nomination of Matthew Schwartz to the New York-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Schwartz was working on the president’s appeal of his hush money conviction, which New York state prosecutors won at trial against Bove and Todd Blanche, the latter of whom the president has nominated to be attorney general.
Blanche is currently acting attorney general, following the departure from that role of another Trump personal lawyer, Pam Bondi.
Before his judicial appointment, Bove was a high-ranking Trump Justice Department lawyer who spearheaded several administration priorities, including the failed attempt to only temporarily dismiss corruption charges against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Separately, a DOJ whistleblower accused Bove of saying the department “would need to consider telling the courts ‘f— you’ and ignore any such court order” in litigation over deportation flights. Bove said he “did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders.”
Smith represented Trump in the Carroll litigation alongside his colleagues at James Otis Law Group, a St. Louis firm founded by John Sauer. The firm has represented Trump in several matters, also including the criminal immunity appeal that Sauer argued to the justices in 2024. Sauer is now the solicitor general, the DOJ’s top lawyer representing the United States at the Supreme Court. The DOJ said it will be supporting Trump’s high court appeal against Carroll.
Trump has two separate but related Carroll appeals stemming from the two damages awards from separate juries. The president lost his appeals so far in the 2nd Circuit, over dissent from judges he appointed to that court in his first term. He is challenging both losses at the Supreme Court.
One of his petitions has been pending for months, but the justices have yet to decide whether to grant review. The latest filing on the docket is a June 2 letter from Smith that said the second petition is coming “within the next month,” and he suggested the court “may wish to consider the petitions together.”
It takes four justices to grant review. The court could grant review of either, both or neither petition, but we don’t know yet what the court will do, only that it didn’t immediately deny the first petition. The promised forthcoming petition will show who Trump’s latest lead counsel is.
The post Trump’s lead Supreme Court lawyer against E. Jean Carroll will now be a federal judge appeared first on MS NOW.
This article was originally published on ms.now
