White House counsel Don McGahn has left the job effective Wednesday. But his influence will live on for years, thanks to the dozens of conservative judges that McGahn helped President Trump put on the federal bench.
The grueling confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh marked an explosive end to McGahn's White House tenure. But he's also worked more quietly in the last two years to put his stamp on the lower courts.
With a flurry of confirmations by the Senate on Oct. 11, Trump has so far installed 29 appeals court judges and 52 district court judges — along with Kavanaugh and his Supreme Court colleague Neil Gorsuch.
McGahn oversaw the president's judicial selection process, picking nominees who are uniformly conservative — often suggested by the Federalist Society or the Heritage Foundation — and typically young — capable of shaping the federal courts' decisions for decades to come.
McGahn's "significance to the judiciary, the White House and the nation cannot be overstated," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in August.
McConnell and his fellow GOP senators cleared the way for McGahn's courthouse makeover by refusing to fill judicial vacancies during the latter years of the Obama administration. That left a large number of openings on the bench for Trump to fill as soon as he came into office — most notably the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
When Scalia died in 2016, McGahn was serving as Trump's campaign attorney. He suggested the candidate publish a list of conservative judges from which Trump would choose Scalia's successor, if elected.
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