Trump Selects Former Assistant for Top Department of Justice Position

Brett Shumate in an undated file photograph. Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has chosen one of his former assistants for a top position at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the agency announced on Feb. 19, as another DOJ official resigned.

Trump selected John Eisenberg to serve as assistant attorney general for national security, the DOJ said in a statement.

During Trump’s first term, Eisenberg served as an assistant to the president, deputy counsel for national security affairs, and legal adviser to the National Security Council. He has held various roles in the DOJ, including associate deputy attorney general. Eisenberg has also worked as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

According to testimony delivered during impeachment proceedings against Trump, Eisenberg and a deputy restricted access to a summary of a call between the president and Ukraine’s president. Trump ended up being impeached over the call, which was leaked by a whistleblower, but was acquitted by the Senate. Another former National Security Council official testified that the call summary was restricted by mistake.

Trump also nominated Brett Shumate, the current acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Division, to serve permanently in the position, and Patrick Davis to serve as assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Office of Legislative Affairs.

Shumate was a deputy assistant attorney general for several years after Trump took office for the first time. He was a partner at Jones Day after departing the DOJ in 2019 before he returned to the agency in January.

Davis has worked in the DOJ previously, including as a deputy associate attorney general during Trump’s first term. He also helped lead the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the FBI’s probe of the Trump campaign and helped the committee shepherd through one of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, Brett Kavanaugh.

The Senate must confirm each of the three selections. Republicans control the Senate and a simple majority is sufficient. The upper chamber recently confirmed Pam Bondi as U.S. attorney general, or head of the DOJ.

The announcement came as Bradley Weinsheimer, who until recently was the DOJ’s highest-ranking career official, stepped down, taking advantage of the federal government’s buyout program.

Weinsheimer’s official email returned a message on Wednesday that said, “I am on administrative leave pursuant to the deferred resignation program and no longer have access to this email box.”

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

Other recent resignations at the agency include those of John Keller, who was acting head of the DOJ’s public corruption unit, and Kevin Driscoll, a senior official in the DOJ’s criminal division.