Trump’s Unusual Criminal Chief Pick Benefits From West Wing Ties

A small-office prosecutor without supervisory experience has leapfrogged into a Trump nomination to lead 600 Justice Department criminal attorneys in Washington—thanks in part to his ties to the White House chief of staff.

Tysen Duva’s path to head the criminal division, a role more focused on bureaucratic management than specific cases, originated eight years ago. As a Jacksonville, Fla.-based assistant US attorney, Duva called Susie Wiles to the witness stand in his public corruption trial of a 12-term Democratic House member.

Wiles, who is now President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, was then a Florida GOP power broker who came away impressed with Duva’s courtroom skills, said Hank Coxe, her attorney in the proceeding. Wiles’ testimony led to a guilty verdict and two-plus years in prison for Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.).

Once Trump retook the White House, Duva was determined to land a higher-ranking DOJ position after nearly two decades as a successful criminal trial lawyer, said Coxe and another friend of Duva’s.

If confirmed by the Senate, Duva would oversee some of the department’s most sensitive and politically charged prosecutions. His nomination comes as Trump seeks criminal probes into his enemies and DOJ, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, dismisses indictments of his supporters.

Duva has a reputation as a savvy prosecutor who tends to work complex cases alone, with minimal supervision, and has been passed over for promotions to run the Jacksonville branch of the central Florida US attorney’s office, three former colleagues said. They were granted anonymity to discuss internal personnel decisions.

Duva declined to comment.

Duva reached out to Wiles and others in an administration filled with fellow Florida lawyers to get considered for a promotion, said Coxe and other lawyers with knowledge of the process. He’s met with Trump at least twice in recent months, they said.

A White House official said Wiles referred Duva to the presidential personnel office and DOJ on his behalf. The official, who described Duva and Wiles as “professional acquaintances,” said Wiles also helped him meet with Trump but otherwise “had nothing to do with his hiring.”

Prior DOJ criminal division leaders said they couldn’t recall a president previously interviewing a potential nominee for this position.

Jacksonville-area defense lawyers describe Duva as a diligent and ethical prosecutor who gravitates to political cases without partisan motivation. Still, for someone who lacks the name recognition or the experience of his predecessors as US attorneys, Big Law practice leaders, or at Main Justice, the West Wing connection paid dividends.

“Engaging in politics I think is going to be a novel experience for Tysen at an enormous level,” said Coxe, the former president of the Florida Bar. “I assume he’s going to be good at it, like almost everything else he does, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to like it.”

Surprising Appointment

Duva now awaits Senate confirmation to serve as an assistant attorney general in charge of a division with about 1,100 employees working on investigations and prosecutions of white-collar fraud, gang violence, and cybercrime.

Some allies said his years of pursuing sophisticated defendants prepare him for leading a division that sets the tone on nationwide corporate enforcement.

“As a prosecutor, Tysen Duva secured convictions for fraud and corporate malfeasance, helped dismantle major international drug trafficking networks, and put fentanyl dealers behind bars,” DOJ spokesperson Gates McGavick said in a statement. “His record speaks for itself and makes him a perfect fit to carry out President Trump and AG Bondi’s Make America Safe Again agenda in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.”

But his nomination surprised DOJ alums and some of Duva’s legal community peers.

“Running the criminal division successfully requires a diverse set of skills, and having good prosecutorial instincts—or having trusted advisers who do—is just the starting point,” said Jeff Izant, who was the criminal division’s chief of staff until February.

The job also entails advocating for the department’s priorities before the judicial and legislative branches, coordinating with domestic and international law enforcement counterparts, and managing a multibillion-dollar budget, added Izant, now a counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

“It also is unusual and unprecedented for a line AUSA to be elevated to this position where you’re overseeing more than 1,000 people,” said Leslie Caldwell, who ran the criminal division under President Barack Obama. “If you’ve never managed anything, that’s a challenge.”

Career Highlight

Duva, a collegiate baseball standout at the University of North Florida, earned a law degree from the University of Florida in 2002. He was then an associate with Holland & Knight, and clerked for US District Court Judge Timothy Corrigan in Jacksonville.

Duva has expressed views on social media that align with administration priorities. Previous posts on X—then Twitter—reflect Duva’s embrace of conservative culture war stances on Covid-19 lockdowns, policing, and transgender sports participation, while defending Trump and criticizing Democratic lawmakers.

He achieved a career highlight last year in a four-week jury trial culminating in a guilty finding for the CEO of Jacksonville’s electric utility. A judge handed down a four-year prison sentence to the executive convicted of privatizing the state-run utility for his personal gain.

“Jacksonville is a place that’s still run by kind of the good old boys,” said Bill Kent, a defense lawyer who’s had extensive dealings opposite Duva. Duva’s handling of the case solved “what I’ll call the biggest crime ever committed” in Jacksonville, Kent said.

Yet even some of his defenders—at least those unaware of his history with Wiles—were a bit perplexed when the White House tapped Duva last month.

“He’s just a guy who goes to work, does his job, puts in his time, and goes home,” said Mark Rosenblum, a former federal public defender in Jacksonville. “I don’t know how that ever happened.”