Trump Picks Judge Mizelle’s Husband as DOJ Chief of Staff

President-elect Donald Trump is tapping a veteran of his prior administration, Chad Mizelle, as the Justice Department’s chief of staff and a senior aide for Texas Republicans to run DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy.

Mizelle, who was acting general counsel and chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, will be the principal staffer to Trump’s attorney general pick Pam Bondi, if she’s confirmed. Mizelle’s wife Kathryn is a US district court judge based in Bondi’s hometown of Tampa, Florida.

At the legal policy office, which is responsible for reviewing regulations and recommendations for judgeships, Trump said he’ll be nominating Aaron Reitz, who is currently the chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and a former deputy to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In Saturday afternoon Truth Social posts announcing the duo, Trump called Mizelle a “MAGA warrior” who’ll “help bring accountability, integrity, and Justice back to the DOJ,” and praised Reitz as a “true MAGA attorney” based on his experience filing lawsuits against the Biden administration.

Mizelle, as Bondi’s closest adviser, would have access to a wide array of sensitive material on ongoing legal matters, potentially including cases before his wife. Media representatives for the Trump transition didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about possible ethics conflicts.

Both picks mark a change of pace from most of his Trump’s DOJ personnel choices to date in that they haven’t been personal lawyers for the president-elect.

They do signal a continued preference for people with backgrounds firmly aligned with Trump’s immigration agenda, where DOJ will play a critical legal role.

Mizelle, who was also a counsel to Trump’s first-term deputy attorney general, is a close ally of Trump adviser and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller. Reitz was Paxton’s key legal strategist spanning a nearly three-year period when Texas repeatedly challenged Biden-era immigration policies.

Bloomberg Law reported in September that he testified before a grand jury in August as part of DOJ’s corruption probe into Paxton, who himself was floated as a Trump second-term AG contender.

And a named whistleblower last year accused Reitz of sexually harassing female employees at the Texas AG’s office. Reitz left Paxton’s office to join Cruz on Capitol Hill several months later.