Welcome back to Trump Watch, your end-of-week briefing on President Donald Trump and the law. I'm over in Alexandria, Virginia, where U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III just set a February sentencing date for Paul Manafort, who appeared in court Friday in a wheelchair. His attorney, Kevin Downing, indicated the former Trump campaign chairman is dealing with health issues.

It's almost the weekend (TGIF) so I'm recapping the week's headlines, including the drama over a Williams & Connolly partner's nomination to a federal appeals court.

>> Thanks for reading, and please keep sending over tips, feedback and ideas. You can always shoot me an email or follow me on Twitter.

Allison Jones Rushing. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM.

This Week in Trump Watch: The Clash Over Court Picks

 

It was the Trump administration that first reached out to Allison Jones Rushing, a D.C. appellate lawyer, in June. Lawyers in the White House counsel's office wanted to know if the Williams & Connolly partner was interested in a federal judgeship.

She was. According to her Senate questionnaire, the White House and Justice Department interviewed her days later. On June 29, the North Carolina native learned that she'd get the nod for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Rushing's nomination, formally announced in August, became ensnared in the latest congressional clash over Trump's judicial picks this week when Rushing had her confirmation hearing on Wednesday. That's because Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee convened the hearing, even though the Senate is recessed. The panel's Democrats were incensed. It's rare for the Senate to consider nominees during a recess. When it has happened, it's taken place with the consent of the minority side, Democrats say.

Republicans stood by their decision. Wednesday's hearing exemplified how the GOP has continued to forge ahead with judicial nominations, as the effort to reshape the federal judiciary has clearly become the Republican raison d'être.

Opposition to Rushing's nomination has also coalesced around one big point: her relatively short time in law. Rushing was born in 1982, and if she is confirmed, that could make her the youngest sitting judge. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts says the youngest sitting federal judge at the moment is District Judge Holly Lou Teeter for the District of Kansas, who was born in 1979.

>> Here's our report on Rushing's financial disclosure, plus a recap of her confirmation hearing. Only two senators, both Republican, sat on the dais for the session. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, questioned whether Rushing had enough “life experience” to serve on an appeals court.

>> Meanwhile, a majority of the American Bar Association's standing committee gave Rushing a “qualified” rating. A minority on the panel deemed her “well qualified.”

>> On the matter of age: “How young is too young to be a federal court of appeals judge?” USC Gould School of Law prof Orin Kerr mulls that question here.

Don McGahn. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM.

 

McGahn's Exit and Other News This Week…

 

>> Judiciary committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, had previously set a hearing for Ninth Circuit court nominees for next week. Again, it's over the objections of Democratic senators. The nominees who are tentatively scheduled to appear, according to a Senate Judiciary Committee aide on Thursday, are Perkins Coie appellate partner Eric Miller and federal magistrate judge Bridget Bade. Both are up for Ninth Circuit seats. Senators could also hear from Karin Immergut, a state court judge nominated to the federal district court in Oregon, as well as Richard Hertling, of counsel at Covington & Burling, named to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Here's my look at the nominees, including a look at Miller's financial disclosure form. For more, my colleague C. Ryan Barber has deets on Hertling's filings.

>> Speaking of the federal judiciary… Donald McGahn, the Trump administration's chief architect in its remaking of the judicial bench, left his role as White House counsel this week. As you've probably seen, he'll be replaced by Pat Cipollone, named partner at Stein Mitchell Cipollone Beato & Missner and former partner at Kirkland & Ellis.

It's still not clear when Cipollone will take over. Emmet Flood, who currently oversees the White House's response to the special counsel probe, is acting counsel for now. Meanwhile, my colleague Ryan Lovelace takes a look at Cipollone, the well-connected Catholic conservative set to get a desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

>> It's no secret that outside groups have played a role in the conservative project on federal judges. They've helped shape Trump's SCOTUS shortlist, and the Federalist Society's Leonard Leo has emerged as a top Trump and McGahn confidant. But the New York Times' Adam Liptak put a spotlight on the work of the Heritage Foundation this week, with a report on the conservative group's clerkship “training academy” program. Read the story here.

>> Pencil it into your calendars: The D.C. Circuit has scheduled Dec. 6 oral arguments in the continued court fight over AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner. You'll recall, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in the District of Columbia green-lighted the deal in June. The Justice Department, under the leadership of its antitrust cop Makan Delrahim, appealed the case to the D.C. Circuit in July. The panel of judges weighing the case is still TBD, and keep an eye on which attorneys will argue in December.

>> Could Mueller wrap up his probe soon? Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that Mueller is “expected to issue findings” from his probe—on the so-called collusion and obstruction questions—soon after the November midterms.

Meanwhile, adding to the speculation that things are winding down: Kyle Freeny, a money laundering expert on Mueller's team, withdrew her appearance from the Paul Manafort case in Washington, D.C., this week, confirming her departure from the probe. As CNN and the Financial Times earlier reported, she's returning to the DOJ's Criminal Division. Brandon Van Grack, another prosecutor, left the team to return to his post in the National Security Division in late August. Two other prosecutors, Ryan Dickey and Brian Richardson, also left this year.

>> The Times published a story Friday on morale inside Sessions' DOJ. It's well worth a read. Morrison & Foerster's Robert Litt tells the NYT's Katie Benner: “Since I've been a lawyer, going back to the late 1970s, I can't recall a time when morale has been as low as I have heard from some former colleagues.”

Gavel Tracker

 

 

Thanks for checking out our Gavel Tracker! How do we count up these numbers? The count on Article III pending nominations is the sum of all of Trump's nominees to Article III courts, including the U.S. Court of International Trade. Our court-by-court breakdown, however, only looks at Supreme Court, appellate, and district court nominees. Additionally: Our figure for pending nominations includes nominations for future vacancies, as well as existing vacancies.