This far-right troll will help Trump create an 'aggressively right-wing judiciary': report

19 October 2024

In his first term, former President Donald Trump leaned on the conservative establishment to help him vet federal judges. But in a potential second term, that job would likely go to a far-right media personality who would prioritize loyalty to the MAGA agenda.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that attorney-turned-pundit Mike Davis is positioning himself to be Trump's go-to authority on who to appoint to vacant Article III judgeships. That marks a sharply rightward shift from Trump's previous dependence on the Federalist Society's Leonard Leo, who helped elevate alumni like Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Davis — who once clerked for Gorsuch — is a regular on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast who has now become "a key adviser on legal issues and judicial selection," according to the Post. The former president has described Davis as "tough as hell" and promised he would serve "in a very high capacity" in a second Trump White House.

As a lawyer who worked for former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Davis helped move hundreds of Trump's hand-picked federal judges through the U.S. Senate to various district and circuit-level positions. And after Leo and the Federalist Society put Trump at arms' length in the wake of the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Davis has positioned himself at the head of the ex-president's judicial vetting operation.

“A broad spectrum of conservatives were pleased with judicial selection in Trump’s first term, but I don’t think we can have faith that his nominees in a second term will live up to that standard, especially if he’s more likely to listen to a faction that wants a more aggressively right-wing judiciary,” Gregg Nunziata, executive director of the Society for the Rule of Law, told the Post. “I do worry that in a second administration, Trump and his allies will be more willing to apply personal or political loyalty tests.”

Davis' most high-profile role was being the lead counsel to oversee Kavanaugh's controversial nomination in 2018. The conservative jurist's appointment was nearly derailed after Christine Blasey Ford went under oath before the committee to describe her sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh (the Post recently reported that the Trump White House made sure the FBI investigation he authorized into the allegations went nowhere). Davis told the Post that he was undeterred by Blasey Ford's testimony.

"There was no way in hell I was going to let Kavanaugh fail, even if the allegations were true," he said.

Michael Zona, who served as Grassley's communications director during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, said Davis "simply didn't sleep" as he battled to get Kavanaugh across the finish line.

"He would update allies, reporters, and other offices so many times a day with everything from talking points to data and analysis that it was tough to keep up — or manage," he said. "By the end of the Kavanaugh confirmation, there was no china left for Mike to break."

If he wins the November election, Trump may get to appoint two new Supreme Court justices in a second term, as both Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas are well into their seventies. If Trump replaces them, he would have appointed five of nine justices on the High Court.

Click here to read the Post's full article (subscription required).

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