Trump Picks Lawyer on Ukraine Call to Head DOJ National Security

President Donald Trump intends to nominate his former White House legal adviser involved in the handling of a call with Ukraine’s president that led to his impeachment as head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

John Eisenberg, a former Kirkland & Ellis partner, was serving as legal adviser to the National Security Council at the time of the July 2019 call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. National Security Council staffer Lt. Col. Alexander Vindaman who had been listening to the call later testified that Trump’s effort to pressure Zelensky into investigating domestic political rivals so alarmed him that he reported it to Eisenberg.

Vindaman also testified that Eisenberg moved the transcript to a highly classified server and restricting access to it, according to media reports at the time.

In an announcement Wednesday, the Justice Department said Trump also intends to nominate Brett Shumate, currently the acting head of the Civil Division, to lead it on a permanent basis, and Patrick Davis, currently the acting chief of the Office of Legislative Affairs, to hold the same post without the interim label.

If confirmed by the Senate, Eisenberg would run a national security office that’s had career officials recently removed early in the Trump administration, depleting it of veteran experience. The assistant attorney general for NSD sits in morning threat briefings with the attorney general and FBI director and oversees a team of lawyers responsible for counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and export control cases.

DOJ’s national security chief also represents the government in seeking Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authorizations.

Eisenberg has also previously served in the Justice Department as an associate deputy attorney general and a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel. He clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas after graduating from Yale Law School.