Trump Taps Federal Prosecutors for North Carolina Trial Courts

President Donald Trump plans to nominate a slew of federal prosecutors to serve on North Carolina’s federal trial courts after the state’s senior Republican senator blocked Joe Biden from filling those judgeships.

Trump’s picks include Lindsey Freeman, who worked in the Justice Department during the president’s first term, for the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, according to a social media post by the president.

Freeman was chief of staff in the Office of Legal Policy and later deputy associate Attorney General in the Justice Department. She’s now an assistant US attorney in the state.

“She is TOUGH and SMART, with degrees from UPenn Law School and Harvard, and knows what is required to protect our Constitutional Rights,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

David Bragdon, also tapped for the Middle District of North Carolina, is the chief appellate lawyer for the US attorney’s office in the district. He’s also a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.

For the Western District of North Carolina, Trump plans to nominate Susan Courtwright Rodriguez, who’s currently a US magistrate judge in the district. Before spending over a decade in private practice, she was a policy adviser in the Department of Homeland Security.

Matthew Orso, a lawyer at Troutman Pepper Locke, is Trump’s other pick for the court. Orso’s practice focuses on government investigations and white collar defense, according to his LinkedIn.

The slate of nominees comes after Sen. Thom Tillis (R) vowed a blockade on the Biden’s administration’s efforts to fill district court vacancies in his state, over the White House’s purported treatment of his suggestions for an appeals court vacancy in the state.